Annette Claire
by Inoko-chi
Summary: This is about the life of a french girl who has been on the streets, but was taken in by Reborn to learn how to use a gun. But before the hitman turns into an arcobaleno, he pushes her away. What will she do? And how will this broken-hearted girl go on? It's obvious. Accidentally get yourself into the Varia. Pairings: Annette x Xanxus: OcX.
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: Hello everyone! Ok, so I thought of taking on two stories actually now...since I have summer vacation now...I don't know if I'll manage, but will see~.

This story is dedicated to my (supposedly) minor OC in my other stories (The sister of Vongola Decimo and The Queen of Vongola), since I thought she is really unique and needs more screen time.

So~, enjoy~...

Disclaimer: I don't own Khr, duh...except for my OC and some of the plot, which was created together with dear Narzik ( narzik . deviantart . com (without the spaces)) so credits to her too.

* * *

_Chapter 1:   
_

_'I'll be your student.'  
_

"I'm sorry, monsieur, but we really cannot have you direct this." A big, fat man said, taking out the cigar out of his mouth and throwing a pile of papers on his desk.

The 'monsieur' who this was addressed to, rose one of his dark but sharp eye-brows, "Why is that?" he asked calmly and with a cool air around him.

"As I told you before, well...the story is... très bien, but...you don't have a very..hmm, how should I say this...director-like presence. You would do great as one of the actors though." The man answered, pointing out his statement with his fingers movement, while squashing his cigar into the plate to get the burned parts off.

This conversation was already several hours long, in the end, this 'monsieur' ran out of time and patience. Standing up from his chair and placing his fedora onto his head, since he did have enough manners to take his hat off after entering a building...Though what he didn't have enough manners for was...that round man in front of him.

Of course, he didn't loose his cool (he is just too awesome for that), he just turned around a bit so that his emotionless black eyes could face his poor victim, "I'll give you a bit more time to think about this." he said and turned to leave out of the smoke filled room with a slight smirk.

The reason for that? Although 'monsieur's' eyes were emotionless, the threaten to the poor fat man's life was clear. After the door closed, the trembling guy fell on the floor out of relief. Sighing, he muttered, "The next time I happen to see him, I'm dead...I'll have to pack up from here and take my wife and kids to move from here...But where?" After a small thought he decided, "Canada! Canada it is!" And with that, he quickly packed up his desk from important stuff and with a hurry tried to call his wife to tell her his plan.

Outside, the 'monsieur' walked with a very calm pace, but his eyes were still unconsciously being frowning since ever he left that polluted with cigar smoke place. How could HE, the best hitman, not be able to fit a directors job?  
True, his real profession was a bit of a different style to it, but you know...He was the best at everything. So could HE, NOT get THE job?

What? Still wondering where this is all going?

- Well, for one, l should tell you a small secret about this young, cool and mysterious guy. It's - although his profession as an assassin got him a lot of money and he didn't particularly mind the job, but his real dream was to become a director...Oh, snap! You JUST found out? Well, why do you think he always comes up with these amazing ideas like Vongola-styled New years and such? Just because it's part of his job? Of course NOT!

Oh, right, I forgot to tell you that this young adult before, or behind..or from the side of you is one and only...Reborn, uncursed, and nobody knows that he is going to be, so 'shhh~' and don't say a word, please?

Anyways, the slightly frowning guy was walking with mist of dark and gloomy aura coming out of him. ANYONE who saw him passing tried to move as far as possible from him.  
Though one unlucky (or very lucky, depends on how you look at it) middle-aged man, didn't happen to notice that he bumped into him, and not even paying attention, continued running after a small figure which happened to be a very young child with a loaf of bread seen in her hands.

Finally getting a victim on who he can take all his negative energy out, Reborn took out his gun as quickly as it was thought impossible and shot the bullet 5 millimeters away from the head of a certain running man. I mean, it's not like he was ACTUALLY a target or wanted, and cleaning up the mess on the streets without any payment is not a favorite goal in his life.

Of course, that didn't mean the middle-aged man didn't freak out and start running away for his dear life...he was so scared, that he even forgot what he was doing before that.

Getting into much better mood now, the hitman continued walking to where ever he had to go. Until he noticed a strange presence right next to him. Of course it didn't surprise him, but it did trigger his intuition up. So he turned...very slowly.

Only to find the kid with the loaf of bread in her hands. Reborn questioned his intuition, why did it go up? It was just an innocent...abandoned..kid?

The guy shot an eyebrow in curiosity at this child. As much as he looked at her, she was a girl at the age of 4 or 5. Obviously a street brat, since her clothing was all torn, and her face and hands were all muddy and dusty. The only clean thing on her...was the bread.

The dark-haired guy looked at her...with pity, but he didn't want to do anything unreasonable, so he just turned away and walked off.

Only to get another shiver in his spine. What was up with him? So turned back to see the girl stare at him. Or, not. She wasn't exactly staring at Reborn himself, it's what was in that carrying thing that was stuck to the man's belt. A shining object could hardly be seen behind his opened up jacket.

Another eyebrow was raised, now more curious than the previous time. Was she looking at his gun?

Sighing a bit, the hitman walked towards the small black-haired girl, "You're too young to even think about using this." He stated in a rather caring, but strict way. He twisted his sideburns, which somehow he got a habit of when something interesting was on his mind.

The girl pouted, "I don't care about rules." she blurted out, while still staring at the shining metal and holding much tighter grip on the bread now than before.

"Is that so? Then that bread is not yours either, right?" A sympathetic smirk left him, while leaning down to be on the same eye-level as the girl now. Most street brats were alike, he didn't think that she was any different, but somehow her stare told a different story.

"It is now." She changed her eyes to look at the weird and cool guy right in front of her nose.

The hitman sighed AGAIN! Who ever thought that he could do that, and not only once a day, or week, or a year?

Tell him why he was talking to this kid again? ...I don't know either, and neither did he (although, he won't admit it).

In the end, he just stood up to go again, but then after a short distance, he turned around to see the kid again. ...Well, that was weird, he swore that he left her on a more further distance than that. But he thought it was just paranoia or something of the sort and started to walk again.

This time, he turned to the right, thinking that he won't see the kid again, but when he turned yet again at the known presence, Reborn started to twitch his left eye._ Was she following him?_

No, no, no...it was impossible. WHY would she follow him? There was no reason for her to, except for the gun...but the town, where they were in... it wasn't such a special thing, really. A lot of people had it, because a LOT of them were a part of the mafia mind you. True, not everybody goes around to show it in the middle of the street, but I mean...COME ON!

It was already the 10th time Reborn had turned into a small ally to loose his rather annoying tail, a.k.a - the little girl.

I mean, if he wanted to, he could just jump on one of the roofs, but since he already had enough showing off for the day, he decided not to.

But this was getting freaky, even for the best hitman. The said guy was getting stiff and irritated. Of course he tried to keep his cool, but it didn't work too well, since he was already breaking up a sweat...

"What do you want, brat?" He asked, loosing his patience (jeez, was he THAT impatient when he was younger? Tch, tch, tch~ Reborn, reborn, reborn...your language!)

The girl's black eyes, glittered, as it seemed that she finally got what she wanted, "Teach me." She said, using a puppy dog stance.

"Teach what?" The young dark-haired practically barked. But it seemed like the girl didn't mind the barking at all, "How to use that thing..." She just replied innocently.

This took Reborn by surprise, "The gun? Why?" "Hmm~, well, for one...after you used that thing, the stupid old man that was chasing me freaked out and ran for it." She answered excitedly, throwing her arms around to act the scene from earlier out. Of course, a 4 or 5 years old could do it properly, but since it looked so funny the hitman chuckled unwillingly.

"And what do I get in return for teaching you?" He asked, obviously not taking the girl's words seriously.

Oh, shoot. He caught her...The girl heard the adults on the streets talk abouts deals and such, where one would do something with something in return. But since she only experienced beatings for taking something, she never really thought it is of any use.

But then an idea popped up in her head, "I won't take anything without permission again." Of course that was hard to believe, even for herself..But something made that sound like it would work.

"Really?" The soon-to-be-teacher wondered, with both raised eyebrows and a 'I don't believe you' look in his bored eyes.

"_Oui!_" The girl said sternly, leaving no space for suspicion. But then a more relaxed face came over her, as she said, "But I don't have anything else, so...you'll have to feed me too..." A small smile crept up.

Reborn rolled his eyes._ Of course_. Why did he not think of that earlier? She just wanted to desperately find a place to live in...

Though the idea of having someone around once in awhile at home didn't sound too bad. And since this girl DID just make him break a sweat, she seemed to have some great potential. Maybe it would be fine, and she promised not to steal anything...Which he wouldn't trust if it would be said by an older person, but this little lost kitty was more innocent than he had first made an impression of her. She wouldn't lie, that's a good trait...for now.

"Alright, I'll teach you. But there will be rules that you will HAVE TO follow." He made the 'have to' clear. The girl just nodded happily in return.

Maybe he now got a different hobby to look forward to from now on~.

* * *

How was this chapter~? Yup, so this story is a several years before Reborn meets Checker face and the rest. Or it's suppose to be anyways. And yes, this is in France, so some of the short words were in french.

I hope you figured who the girl is~, if not...you'll have to wait until next chapter.

Reborn is maybe a bit out of character, but hey...he couldn't be cool all of his life, right? So he is a bit more impatient now.

Please tell me what you thought, ok?


	2. Chapter 2

author's note: Hello everyone~! Thank you for those that faved and alerted this story~! I was really happy to find that this story is of interest to you guys! And of course special thank you to** sourapple2000** for your kind review~! Here is a cookie for you~!

Note: I know that in the summary it says about Varia, but I thought of starting her life from the point of where she is meeting Reborn first, since I thought it should be interesting to see how he trains his first student. Well, let's not keep you people waiting~

disclaimer: don't own Khr, duh...except for my OC and some of the plot, which was created together with dear Narzik ( narzik . deviantart . com (without the spaces)) so credits to her too.

* * *

_Chapter 2:_

_The form of a bound  
_

First things first, if Reborn _ever_ even would consider training this kid, the filth on her would need to go. He didn't need his reputation to go down just because the kid that he is looking after was a dirty street rat.

"First rule: learn how to be clean." The disgusted look the hitman had on him, made the girl realize that 'clean' was probably something she was not, but had to be.

Giving a puzzling look towards Reborn, the girl asked, "And what's that?"  
The guy wanted to palm-face himself, when he heard the question, but didn't, since he is just way too cool for that. _'There is going to a LOT of work...why did I even bother myself with this?' _

"Just follow me, you'll figure yourself out later." He replied with a low (sexy, should I add) voice, making the girl's cheeks turn pinkish somewhat. She didn't know from what, since love was not something she got everyday. And plus, the kid was only 5 years old.

The rest of the way was held in silence.

It wasn't until the girl stopped to look at something, that Reborn payed attention to her. She was looking at the glass window that had really stylish clothes.

Even at a young age, this girl knew somehow what good fashion style was. This interested Reborn even more, since he needed to keep himself looking awesome, and style was a tool of that.

"You want to get them?" He smirked, turning around his head to look at the kid. Well, it didn't take more than a second for her eyes to start glittering with happiness, as if she thought Reborn would buy these clothes for her.

Figuring that the girl would need some new clothes on her (since the ones she was wearing...well, they looked like rags put into mud. Not the best thing to use after cleaning yourself), he sighed and went in to the shop.

The wide, big black eyes stared with surprise as the man with funny sideburns went into the shop. It was the first time someone did that for her, for a very long time, so she started feeling funny in her tummy.

Reborn didn't take too long, since he approximately guessed the little girl's size and didn't think too much about getting anything fancy and the women who were in front of him in the line were...fakely seduced (I really pity them...Reborn and your ways of getting what you want...*sigh*), getting him to the very front of the cashier's desk. Easy, right?

But since I don't want to die in Mr. best-hitman-in-the-world's hands I'll skip to the part where they came to his apartment.  
Not that it was any better...

"W-what's that..?" The girl's eye twitched looking at the pouring hot water from the tab, that was filling the bath tab. The horror in her eyes, telling us that maybe she already knew somewhat what that was, but was too scared to admit.

"The thing that will make you clean." Reborn answered with a sarcastic tone. Who knew that he had such a parenting skills?

Turning from one horror to the demon, with eyes that said he found his target or something, behind her, she screamed. "NOOOO~~~! Don't wanna!" Her feet suddenly started to move like there was no tomorrow. And if she would be somewhere else, the kid would be out of there in seconds. Sadly, that wasn't the case.

Oh, no. The hitman wouldn't want this amusing toy run away so easily...wait, did I just say toy? Oh, yeah. Yes, I did.

Reborn held his young victim by the collar, "No, you don't." It was rather amusing how much effort the kid was putting in running away.

Figuring that she had already sighed a contract with a devil (though she had absolutely no idea what that was), the black-haired girl stopped running.

The lost puppy of a face that she was giving to our young adult, could've worked on pretty much anyone, well, with the exceptions of the receiver.

Instead he smirked, "If you don't get in there, I won't teach you how to use this~." showing his gun to her and smiling like a true businessman, making a deal.

It didn't take even one full second before her mood changed and she started jumping like an obsessed kid, wanting to catch a butterfly desperately. "F-fine.." She blushed, realizing what she was doing, pouting her cheeks.

Reborn was fully self-satisfied with his black-mailing methods. Not that he cared, that he used it on a 5-years-old.

"Then take these...things off." He pointed at the rags of clothes she had on, not calling them anyhow 'clothes', he kindly just named them 'things'. Well isn't he nice? "And then get in."

The girl looked at the man a 'are you kidding me?'-face. Though remembering still from the times when her parents were around, she also had to take her clothes off. Sighing at the memory that past her just then, her face became sort of dark and with obedience she had done as told.

The water wasn't actually as hot as she thought it would be, actually, it was rather nice on the skin.

Noticing the different face expression, Reborn had finally remembered that he didn't know anything about the girl, not to mention the name either.

"What's your name?" He asked, putting his sleeves away, so that he wouldn't get them wet as well while helping the kid to wash herself.

The question surprised the girl a bit, but she answered anyways, "Annette, Annette Claire." The wet black hair, that now were wavy and shining in the sun rays that were coming from the window, smoothened out the rest of the little girl's looks. Finally, the hitman could see the full face of this Annette.

Rubbing the dirt of her, he also noted that she had tanned skin. _'So it wasn't just from being overly dirty, huh?'_ he thought. Not that he minded, but just most of her looks reminded him so much of his previous lover, that he had broken up about 5 years ago with. The name was a bit different, but that didn't mean anything.

And as if realization just hit him on the head really hard, _'It couldn't be, right?' _His jaw dropped really hard, when the girl smirked out of no where, as if reading his mind. "Those thingies next to your cheeks are really funny, they're really close.." The small, curious hands of the girl grabbed his sideburns and started pulling them closer to herself.

Well, for one thing we can conclude from this, sadly we were wrong, Reborn was still nothing but a guy with not that much parenting skills, at all (not that he will admit it himself).

Running a shiver through his spine, he threw the thought of this child actually being _his_ away. Far off to the Never-land. But just to make sure...

Small lips had kissed the hitman's nose, while the small hands released his sideburns (that Reborn didn't even pay attention to) . The blank expression on his face was rather hilarious, but sadly the heroine didn't know that.

Coughing a bit, not to let himself totally loose his cool, he asked, "Why did you do that?"

"Mamman always told me to do it to her as a _merci_." Annette answered smiling sweetly...but then a small blush ran down her face, "..and you kind of remind me of her.." The funny feeling in her tummy returned.

This caught the hitman's attention, "And where is this 'mamman' now?" he asked.

Obviously, that question was probably taboo or something, because the expression changed drastically. "She is gone." she finally replied after the long, dramatic wait, gulping before she continued, "One day we were in the car, going somewhere...when something went boom, and before I knew it, mamman threw me from the car. I landed on the grass, but saw that...*sniff*..the car..*sniff* was already all on fire..and mamman...stayed there..."

Small tears were starting to form in the child's eyes. Reborn grumbled inside, how he hated seeing small kids cry, especially girls. It was really annoying and pissing him. I mean, why do they? It's not like it was his fault, right?

Though for the first time, he really did understand why the kid in front of him was crying. She had a very good reason to.

"Stop crying. Your mother wouldn't want you to, right?" He told her with an emotionless tone, "You want to become stronger, right?"

The girl's eyes widened, it was so long since anybody talked to her like they cared. The man with a black fedora and a yellow stripe on it was definitely special.

After nodding slowly, unsure what he was going to say next, Annette realized that she didn't exactly want to find out the rest.

A smirk had yet again found it's place on Reborn's lips, "You better be prepared, or else you might not make it through my training. First..." A grumble came out from the girl's stomach.

Sighing, he noticed that he was also getting hungry. "Dress up and let's get something to eat." Although the phrase sounded so uncool, Reborn knew how to make it sound epic. Like a boss~.

Getting out a bunch of clothes, which he bought, the hitman threw them at the now clean and dried up girl, "Put these on and let's go."

The clean body and hair that she had were still alien to her, but Annette enthusiastically did as was told. Trust for the man in front of her was built. Well, one of the reasons for that was, because she didn't know what kind of hell was awaiting her (she literally didn't even suspect anything).

Finishing putting on the clothes, Annette looked in the mirror. Her eyes shined with excitement, when she saw her own reflection. A cute clean face with let down black hair up to her shoulders and pink shirt that had a ribbon lace going up it's right side, with black leggings was shown.

In general it was rather adorable. Reborn was proud of his work too. Heh, who wouldn't be?

For food, the hitman went to the kitchen to grab something. Annette followed him in to a rather modern, though still traditional wooden kitchen. This was probably the only place in the whole apartment, where it didn't scream out 'I'm a hitman!'.

The rest of the rooms had bullets on the tables, pictures of targets, a cupboard full of different liquors..etc. And anyone could bet that here and there were also hidden guns of different sizes and shapes.

Also in the living room, the little girl found a lizard-thingy in one of the trees. "Why do you have a lizard at home?" she asked curiously, looking at the creature. Feeling so adult-like for knowing a word like 'lizard', she turned around to the actual adult to get her answer.

"It's a chameleon, and it's my pet. The name is Leon." Reborn corrected her, sounding like a meanie and a know-it-all.

The girl gave a glare at him. How dare he treat her like a small kid? (Maybe because you're?)

"And anyways, come eat. You probably didn't have a good meal for a while." The adult told her, placing two plates, full of stuff (I'm not bothered to think of anything, so use your imagination please ^^) on to the table.

He didn't really have anything for the girl to drink, since he just poured red wine for himself. But at least, he found some normal water, which he placed in front of her.

The meal went by in silence, since the girl really was eating with great appetite and Reborn just ate, while thinking up the training program for his newly found student.

If you believe that Reborn was thinking of a schedule that would be the easiest for Annette...ohh, boy you're wrong. He didn't care if she was a girl or a 5 years old...In other words, the first time he will be able to enjoy the torture of his students is coming.

This was going to be fun.

* * *

And that's the end of the second chapter.

Hahaha~, training time is soon~!

Tell me what you think, so please review~!


	3. Chapter 3

author's note: Hello everyone! This chapter is going to be about their awesome training~!

disclaimer: I don't own KHR, and the plot is half mine, since the other half is owned by Narzik (on deviantart), so credits for her too.

* * *

Chapter 3:

_Master and student_

"Gyaaaa~~! JE DETESTE LES CHIEENNNNNNSSS*!" (*I hate dogs = french) A five-year old screamed, running at full speed from five different big street dogs. A smirk on a young guy's face, as he watched this scenario from the top of a roof top. He tilted his fedora, not to start laughing like a maniac, because that will totally be uncool.

This is how it all started:

Annette finished her meal with lightning speed, before looking at the man in front of her, who was grinning his heart out in his head, of course.

"What now?" she asked innocently, "Are you going to teach me?" Her eyes sparkled with excitement again. The man 'woke up' from his thinking, "You'll call me 'master' if you want me to." He finished drinking his liquor, putting on a poker face. "Why?" She asked raising an eye-brow. "Because that's what you call a person that you respect and ask to teach you." The lecture face doesn't exactly suit you Reborn, so stop trying to use it. "I see...Master, are you going to start teach me?" Annette rephrased her question, adding 'master' in there.

The man with funny sideburns smirked yet again, "Yes. Actually, I know just the thing to start with. Come here." He did the sign with his finger so that the young girl would follow.

And following like she was told to, Annette found herself in a grey cat over-all. And no, if you're thinking off a fancy maid outfit with cat ears and tail or something of the sort...that's just wrong...even this hitman wouldn't go so far as to put that on a 5 years old.

What I meant was a one-piece over-all, that had only the face shown. So the cat ears and tail were included.

"Master, why did you change what I was wearing?" The girl asked, confused. "It's for training. People like me need to always be careful and use camouflage whenever we need to, to become someone different." If this would have been a cartoon, a Pinocchio nose would have grown on him.

You know how the baby Reborn keeps on having these ridiculous outfits? Well, he got that habit not from dressing up himself, but from dressing up this little kitten.

Or actually, when he was younger himself, he would rather dress up and prank someone (he is a boy, right?). Many people thought he would become an actor when he grows up. Sadly, not. He, himself thought that actors were all lame. I mean, those people just go on whatever stage and 'pretend' to be someone else. Nooo~, Reborn is waayy too awesome for that. What he wanted was to direct. Be a leader. Which he finally got the chance of with this kid.

"Oh, I see..what's a camouflage?" The black-haired gray cat asked. Seriously, she looked like a cat, since her figure was still rather small (well, she is 5 years old, right?)

"You'll find out when you grow up." Reborn wasn't bothered to answer. Though the girl just nodded in response.

The next minute, they were out in the street, an alley way, when the devilish hitman told Annette to make cat sounds. "Why?" She asked, totally not getting how this was going to help her use that shiny object which Reborn promised to teach her. "'Cuz I, your master, say so." The hitman was getting really irritated with her 'why?' questions.

"Meauw~." She imitated the cat sound she knew of from the streets. And the more Annette was made to imitate, the more alley creature started to pay attention to her.

Then out of nowhere, a big, hungry, scary looking, not cat friendly dog appeared, glaring at the small gray cat in front of it. Annette shrieked and before she even realized herself, her feet were running like crazy for her.

The dog obviously ran after, and more came in later.

Well...there you have it.

After several minutes of running after them and not loosing their tale, Annette had no more stamina left to run, so the dogs attacked her as she stopped.

_'Revenge is sweet~.'_ Reborn thought as he went down to get the already dirty, unconscious girl, who was lying on the street ground.

* * *

"Noo~, they'll eat me!" Annette screamed as she jumped up from the bed, but after the little girl noticed she was lying in a warm bed. Though around her everything was dark.

"Heh, so you're finally awake?" The hitman leaned on the door frame. The girl nodded, surprised to see white stuff covering where the dogs hit her. So she wasn't exactly paying attention to the shadow that was behind the door.

"Alberto? Is someone in that room?" A sweet female voice was heard from the shadow. Reborn didn't really want people to find out his identity, so every time he changed lovers, he changed the name (which happened rather often, it's a wonder miracle that he remembered his girlfriend that looked so much like Annette).

And this 'Alberto' stood up from leaning on the door frame, so that he would look at the blond beauty in front of him, "Yeah, just the brat that I picked up and will train."

"Aww~, you're such a sweety~." The model-like girl in her early 20s said. Then she wrapped her arms around Reborn's neck and looked at him with a smirk, "But I know what you're even sweeter at.." she whispered and then lightly kissed the hitman's lower lip, giving him an invitation for him to begin.

The man gave a smirk back, "Indeed I am." he agreed, but before he could go into his 'sexy' mode, the hitman stopped and looked at the disgusted and confused five-years old, "It's night now. Get some sleep, tomorrow training will begin."

That's when he closed the door, leaving an annoyed kid. Whatever just happened here, she didn't like it. No, she didn't like it at all. Somewhere deep inside her tingle of a flame started, clouding her other feelings as she tried to fall asleep.

And the worst part was, she heard different sounds from the other room, which didn't let her sleep.

Ok, it wasn't the first time she saw someone kissing, since she has been on the streets for awhile, but the other times she just gave a disgusted look at them and not bother later. This time was different.

That man was HER master. Touching him like that...she pouted her cheeks yet another time. And then finally fell asleep.

The next day she woke up with someone kicking her out of the warm bed, and onto the cold wooden floor. "Ouchh..." she whined, trying to stand up.

"If you're not at the table in one minute, you won't get breakfast." Reborn threatened, looking down at the kid, holding a pan in his hand. So he can cook too, huh?

Annette didn't quite know what 'a minute' was, but staring at her 'master', it wasn't a lot of time. His deadly glare gave shivers as she started dressing up (whatever she found next to her bed), and running to sit at the table.

"That took you 30 seconds...not bad. Now go do it again, and actually wash your face and hands before coming." Reborn said in monotone. "Heeehhh? Whyyy, master?" The girl pouted, not wanting to redo anything. Her eyes were still half open and a yawn broke away from her mouth.

"That's right, because I'm your master and wake up! It's morning." Doesn't that sound very father-like? Or that's just me...

Giving up yet another time, Annette went back, stretching her hands high. The sun was still rising, so the sun rays were coming right to the eyes.

The girl went to the bathroom to wash her face and hands. Then looking at the mirror, she remembered how the woman from yesterday looked. Frowning at the memory, _'That's right. He is HER master...'_

Brushing some of her hair with hands, she took some of her rather long black hair and put them over the right shoulder. This made her look more adult-like. Then holding her head high, she went back to the kitchen. Oh, and all of the bandage from yesterday came off as she was sleeping. Quite restlessly, I guess.

Though obviously the fact that her master just prepared breakfast for her (and she was ultimately hungry) didn't exactly change her mood when she saw exactly the same woman from yesterday leaning on the man's shoulder in nothing but a robe. Her hair was a sleeping mess and the sapphire eyes were half awake.

Annette made sure not to be noticed, as a vein on her forehead was dangerously threatening to pop any time.

"This smells so delicious~." The blond said, in a very tired voice. She wrapped her arms around Reborn's shoulders now, "I'm starving~ Alberto, will you let me have a bite?" The tone this woman used was so sweet, that you would believe she had eaten sweets all of her life.

Afterwards she let go and went to sit on the table. That's when the small black haired girl came in, "Woman, that's my sit." Her charcoal black eyes became emotionless, or more like threatening. Though the vein didn't pop.

"Ohhh~, is this the brat that you were talking about, Alberto?" The beauty asked, having a more lively attitude now.

Reborn looked rather surprised at the girl and then answered, "Yeah." Actually, he was so stuttered that he didn't even take his eyes off his student while answering.

"Myy~, she is so adorable.. And the way, she is trying to threaten me with that look, it's really cute~." The blond said, adoring the little girl in front of her. Totally ignoring the fact that she is hurting Annette's pride. Well, on the other hand, you would probably believe that she was doing it on purpose.

That was the end of the girl's patience. If anything, she wasn't going to tolerate some woman to hurt her pride. Nooo~, in fact, she was going to show the best of her abilities to her master now.

Not waiting any longer, Annette jumped one meter high, with the same amount of length. Then spreading her right leg higher than she even thought she could, the girl managed to kick the blond's head, making her fall out of her sit.

"Ouch, what's up with this brat?" The blond shouted, rubbing her hurt head and trying to stand up.

Reborn rose an eye-brown at this. Well, it's not that this was the first time he saw a cat-fight. And yes, a lot of them did have something to do with him. Obviously, since he was an awesome, mysterious, hot guy that held his cool and that a lot of girls wanted.

Though as much as he has seen those, this was a first time in his life he saw a five-years old do that.

"Alberto, why don't you do something about her! You brought this brat here!" the blond kept on shouting, but neither the master nor student were listening, just staring at each other.

"HEY! Alberto! Are you even listening?" She tried to get the attention of her 'lover'.

"Heh, not bad Annette. Well, at least I won't have to teach you how to use air-kicks." The hitman ignored his blond 'girlfriend'.

"What? You're on her side?" The woman kept on trying to get attention, but it really wasn't working.

"AHH! That's it! I am OUT OF HERE! We're Soooo over!" She finally blew up, stormed out of the room, took all of her own stuff from the bedroom and closed the main door with such strength, that one would think it would break.

"Finally.." Annette whispered, making a much lighter expression now.

"Why did you do that?" Reborn finally asked curiously, putting the breakfast on the table. "Hmm...I didn't like her." Annette answered bluntly, taking a sip of water from the glass, "She was too close to you, master."

The blunt answer shocked Reborn a bit. Just when did the sweet girl from yesterday that was running away from big dogs go? Even a few minutes ago she was exactly the same person. Was after she saw the blond that the girl started acting like this?

The hitman for the first time in his life wasn't sure. Well, not that he cared for once that one of his 'lovers' left him, because of his ignorances. Maybe it really was the kid that was bothering him.

"Heh, you definitely started to feel like at home now, huh?" Reborn asked in sarcasm. But not understanding the meaning behind his words, Annette nodded with excitement.

"Oui. After all, master is the best." She smiled innocently.

The hitman smirked yet again, "Of course I am." He went and placed his big, slim hand on the girl's silky head.

They ate breakfast much more peacefully. Reborn of course already had in mind what to do next, since his plan from yesterday got cracked.

Yes. Now his training will be much more intense and more fun for her.

And yes it was. It has been several years of Annette running around, on cliffs, streets and other stuff. Trying to avoid bullets coming at her from each corned or where ever she went. Hurting her finger from trying to shoot her annoying master down.

Though when she was about 13 years old. The girl finally turned into a mini, female Reborn. Though she had her own way of dealing with men and boys, Reborn was all in her heart.

Though it wasn't until the grand event, the girl finally understood what she meant to her teacher, father-figure, her first-love.

* * *

I wonder if you guys can guess what that 'grand event' is. Well, the hint is...well, if I say anything it will be too easy. So try to guess ^^.

Maann...I finally finished this chapter! Took me quite a while, since I was procrastinating the whole week, while writing my other story - "The Queen of Vongola". But now it's done! Wuhuu!

well, i hope you enjoyed ^^.


	4. Chapter 4

author's note: Hello everyone! Alright. The last chapter of our adult reborn. So stay alive until the next chap, since you-know-who is going to come XD.

disclaimer: I don't own KHR, only my OC. Even the plot is divided between me and Narzik (find on deviantart, if you want ^^)

Now that's over, lets start with the show~!

* * *

Chapter 4:

_The Arcobaleno curse_

"Maann~, that guy was seriously annoying." A girl with long, silky black hair, that was put into a loose bun said. She dropped on the bed, stomach first. Her gun was thrown by her on the pillow.

"You complain about your job? Go get another one." A low, also rather tired, voice said, going to his office and placing yet another picture of their targets on the wall with the rest.

"What? When did I complain, master?" The young, almost teenager kid asked immediately, standing up straight from where she was lying, "I never complained about the job. You know how I love to use the gun master gave me! And plus, the guy's dead, so he won't be bothering me again~." She concluded in the end.

"Heh. True." The hitman answered, yawning and going to the kitchen to start up some espresso.

By now I wonder how many guessed from where these two, master and student, came from? Well, yes, they did indeed come just from an assasinating job. The price for the target wasn't exactly the biggest, but 'harder' to catch as the guy with the money phrased it.

And who doesn't like challenges? Well, for one. Annette did. So after a lot of pleasing from her, Reborn also agreed to do the job. And now he fully regretted it. Since there was basically no profit, and the target was not 'hard to catch' but just seriously an annoying blabber that kept on trying to hit on his little student.

And then, yeah, well...Reborn got a bit over-protective and started to threaten the guy. He didn't exactly know why he did. But anyways, the place became a typical tag-game.

The whole thing was no fun, but just irritating. It's true that quite a lot of people tried to catch his students attention, and he didn't even care one bit. Well, he knew very well how Annette could handle herself by now. But that target...he was different. More like trying to piss the hitman off.

The man growned silently at the memory and then dropped on the chair next to a table, on which there was a glass of brandi(?). He loved espresso, but alcoholic drinks weren't bad for his taste either, especially when he was in a bad mood.

Annette noticed the grumpy mood of her master when she entered the kitchen herself. Not long ago she went to say 'hi' to the chamaleon and give him some food. The little animal was really happy to see his little mistress be so nice to him.

But now the girl came to the kitchen to see how her master was doing. Not becoming any happier from getting no response to her presence, Annette walked slowly, but steadily to the grumpy Reborn.

Coming behind him and placing her already rather big, but still soft fingers on the man's shoulders, she started to massage him. -

"You're in a bad mood. Shall we go to the restaurant tonight then? I sure you'll cheer up." The girl said in the most innocent tone she could manage, to make it sound like she actually cares. I mean, of course she does and all. The problem is not in that. The problem is - Reborn in a bad mood, followes by no food made, followed by her starving.

"Well, if you wouldn't have been so bad in the kitchen, you could've done the dinner." Reborn remarked, hitting right on the spot. His student had one rather big problem to herself. She was horrible in the kitchen. Sighing, the hitman thought,_ 'And yet, she is a girl..'_

Annette wanted to almost cry when her master reminded her of that scene.

The scene that took a few years back. When the girl was only 8, Reborn came from one of his long-night missions. And wanting to be of help, Annette tried to make espresso for him. Though that turned out as a disaster and since then, Reborn didn't let her touch the kitchen.

"I know, master...I said I'm sorry about that time..." She gave the puppy dog face to him. "Scratch that. I won't let you do it no matter what. Fine, let's go to the restaurant. I'm really in no mood to cook at the moment." The still upset master said the beginning in a sarcastice tone.

He stood up afterwards. From all of that training, Annette's fingers have also become rather strong, but not strong enough to hurt someone. So the massages were (at least) great.

With a more relaxed back, his mood lightened up a bit (that 'bit' was very, very small).

For dinner they went to a pretty fancy restaurant, French, if you please. The portions were also of high class (meaning a small piece on a normal plate), but neither of the two were bothered. Since Annette also learned how to eat properly and keep her figure (yes, she already started to get one) at its best, these kind of meals were very helpful to keep the diet.

.

.

And like this happened was pretty much how their life went now.

_Until the day, you all know well, the Checker face came._

Reborn came back from one of his jobs alone, since it was one of those that he figured would be much easier done alone. So Annette was at home, waisting her time with Leon, the chamaleon, until her master came back.

When she heard the main door click, a bright smile came upon her face. "Master! You finally came back!" She exclaimed almost running to hug him. Almost.

The man's face started frowning and with rapid speed, he took out his gun and opened the door, "Who's there?" He asked, smirking. His black eyes said that he knew he had the man in the room cornered.

"Master? Is there someone...? I swear I didn't feel the presence of anyone before this." The girl kind of panicked. But when she got closer to the door as well, getting her own gun ready, Reborn just put a hand on her head.

It meant something like 'Don't panic, keep a cool head.'

"Who's there?" The man that Annette finally could see a bit, due to the moonlight, coming from the window. If she had to guess, she would say the man looked in his forties, fifties. He had a metal hat and a mask of the same material, so they exactly know what he looked like. The rest of of the outfit...well, you would probably describe it as gone crazy detective, maybe. The girl really didn't feel like looking into details, since she, like her master were trying to figure out who the man was to begin with.

Reborn reasked the man the question, still having his index finger on the trigger of the gun, "Who are you and on whose behalf are you?"

Annette just stayed quiet, her eyes already went into 'professional mode'. As in - unreadabale.

"Oh, it's just me." The man answered. The smile on his face told the other two, next to the door, that he was doing everything by plan.

And just to make their conclusion seem even more true, the stranger put his hand into his jacket. Reborn pulled the trigger a bit more, but still didn't fire the bullet, "Don't move." He commanded dryly.

"Oh, don't be in such a hurry." The stranger said in a rather childish tone. He then threw a clear pacifier into the air. Annette had no idea what it was, but looking towards her master, she figured he had a clue.

"I'm just here to..." The man's voice turned lower, "Gather the strongest. **I Prescelti Sette**."

The girl frowned at the words. She had learned Italien, since her master was one and they had lots of missions and assisination jobs there.

_'The selected seven...It sounds like a trap. Master has lots of enemies too, so it wouldn't be a shock if he was one.'_ Annette quickly came to that conclusion, since to her it sounded obviously wrong.

"And why would you need that?" The kid coacked her gun too and put it up, aiming right at the stranger's heart, since the head was covered with metal. Of course, she didn't shoot, since the answer still had to be said.

"You've got quite a hot-blooded student I see...Well, since you don't know little girl, why don't I explain?" The stranger smiled at Annette, making the girl frown even more.

"Haha~, relax, little one. I'm just giving a job request to you master." The metal-hat guy said, laughing.

"Is it a team one?" Reborn asked, lowering his gun, but still on alert. Annette did the same movement, but she was less sure than the hitman.

"The remunations will be considarable." The stranger got a bit more serious, "But first, I would like you to get together." He took out a map and showed it to Reborn. On the piece of paper, there was a cross, "Go there, and you'll be able to meet your companions."

After that, the man went away, leaving a still not satisfied girl and a guy, who was wondering to take the job or not.

"Master, You can't! It's a trap!" Annette exclaimed right after the door closed. "Why do you think that? It's a job request and even if it's a trap, I'm more than capable of taking care of myself." Reborn denied his students words.

She knew that her master's words were final, but that didn't help her worry.

Reborn saw the worried look. "I can easily handle anything. I AM the best, right?" He patted the girl's silky hair (well, its suppose to be the head) , which was now not put anyhow away. The kid looked into her master's eyes and sighed, "You are, aren't you?" "Don't sigh, you sound like an old granma." Reborn pointed out.

Annette wanted to face-palm herself, "I don't sound like an old grandma!" She pouted her cheeks and crossed her arms.

"Gotcha." The man smirked, making the girl realize that he was just playing with her. "Gaah~! Just go already! Do your stupid job and come back!" She exclaimed again and stormed to her room, having a shade of pink on her cheeks.

Reborn smiled slightly at the scene. Annette was a student he was proud to call his own. Although she did have a few downs, the way she grew was rather successful. At least he knew if anything happened, she would be able to take care of herself.

With that thought in mind, he went out and followed the map to the place told to go.

.

The whole next day Reborn didn't come back. And Annette was getting seriously worried. She bought something from the bakery that day to eat for the both of them, but her master just didn't happen to come back.

Though her worries were shattered in to pieces when she heard the door lock open and the hitman come in.

"Master! You're back! Wait..so was it really a job? How did it go?" The girl attacked him with questions.

"Not bad, the mission was easy. Since the rest of the group were pretty talented too." Reborn answered, going to the living room to pat Leon, "And the reward was pretty big, not that I care." he added.

"Though you're probably still the best out of them, right?." The girl said enthusiastically. The hitman smirked, "Of course. Who do you think I am?" The rhetorical question made Annette giggle.

"The next job starts later in the week. It seems like it will be longer this time, so don't wait for me like tonight." Reborn noted, taking off his hat now.

Annette wasn't exactly too happy with that, so she decided to ask, "Can I come?" Although it sounded rather childish, the girl was deadly serious. That's why the man answered straightaway, "No. We already have a team of people, extra isn't necessary. In the meanwhile, if you're so bored, you can go out and act like a normal thirteen years old."

The last statement stung even more than the rest. "Why? I'm not like a normal kid, you know that." She said bitterly. But after a few moments, she raised an eye-brow and looked at her master, who was sitting by now, relaxed and drinking espresso.

"It can't be that a woman has something to do with it, right?" She asked curiously, having her arms crossed, "Noo...it more like is. Fine, you can go after those women of yours as much as you want..." The girl came to her master and sat on his laps, looking straight into his eyes, smirking, "But know that in the end, I'll be the one to. Take. Your. Heart." In the end she stopped at every word, making it sound like she is more than capable to.

The man smirked back, placing his espresso cup on to a table, "Is that so?" He asked,raising an eyebrow and looking down at his student. Inside, he was again stuttered at the girl's behavior. It didn't really bother him, since he actually did the things in this category himself.

What stuttered him was that it took him a brain to tell him, that his student is actually only thirteen! So much for the best hitman in the world.

"I'll be waiting." He replied, placing his head onto his right hand, which was supported by sofa's handles.

"You better be." Annette answered, having her confidence rise even more. The rest of the evening went by like usual, as if what happened forgotten.

.

Reborn went off to the next job, returning only after a few days. And later on he went off for much longer times, or shorter, Annette couldn't even tell anymore. She kind felt left alone and forgotten, but the hitman brought money with him, telling her that she can use it.

Every single time her master would come home, he would bring (or more like say that there is more money on the bank account, though he did bring some back in cash too). Though he only talked about the missions and how more entertaining they were getting.

It wasn't until that 'fateful day' that Annette lost all hope of ever getting more time with her master, or any at all, to be more precise.

Reborn had told her that the next missions was going to be on a mountain tp find some treasure or something. That is why the girl got herself, somehow, wondering around somewhere in the forest next to it. Her guts told her that something bad would happen to Reborn, so she came. Even before he left for that mission, she tried to persuade him to stay and not go, but it didn't work, as Reborn again thought she was being childish.

"Hey, you. Girly!" Annette heard a man's voice, from behind her. She wasn't quite sure if it was real or not, so the girl turned around.

Turning around, she found a rather handsome blond man in an army uniform...COMSUBIN uniform, if she remembered correctly, or anyways, army uniforms were not her speciality. There was also a pretty big rifle on his shoulder.

"What is a soldier doing in these parts of the mountain side?" She asked curiously, fully alerted, in case he was just using the uniform as a costume for a spying purspose.

"Asks a girly." The 'soldier' replied back. If she wasn't in a hurry to go up the mountain, she would probably kick this guy, hard. But since she was, she just send him a hateful glare.

The man stepped back, "Ok, I take that back. But could it be you're also going after those that went up that mountain?" This triggered Annette, _'how did he know?'_

"By your expression, I'm guess that's a yes." The blond soldier concluded.

The girl really got curious to why and how he knows about them, "How do you know about them?" "Well, my trainer is one of the inhuman people up there. How about you?" He asked also curious to why a young girl like her was out here.

Annette stayed quiet for a minute, thinking of a good answer, "I guess we're on the same page." she finally said, making the soldier sort of confused.

" Really? But you're rather young-" Before the guy could finish his sentense, Annette kicked him in the gut at full speed, then doing a reverse kick, that made the man fall off balance.

"Oww..." The soldier complained, "Seems like you're pretty inhuman yourself." He rubbed his stomach while standing up. "Heh. Took you long enough to figure. My master is the strongest after all." She jerked her head away from the blond, like she wasn't interested.

"Wait up. I'm Colonello. This mountain is really complicated, so I have no idea how to get up." He said in a louder voice, catching up to the girl.

Looking up to the guy, Annette noticed concern as well. Was he also worried for his trainer? "Idiot..." She mumbled under her breath, "Annette. You better don't slow me down." She sharply told him.

"Sheesh, you definitely have a lot of self-esteem for a teen." Colonello said in a low voice.

The way proved not to be too difficult, actually the two of them soon enough almost caught up to them. And just as Annette figured, after a while, Reborn stopped moving, "How much further are you planning to follow us?" he remareked in a cool tone.

"Busted, eh?" Colonello came out from their hiding spot. Annette heard then a woman's voice, "C-colonello?" That must be the trainer that he was talking about.

"Just as I thought, you people are really not normal." The blond repeated his statement from earlier. But before anything else could go on, he got a kick in the back.

"Don't repeat the same thing." an irritated Annette practically hissed at him. When she finally understood that she was now busted too, the girl came out from the hiding stop as well.

"Annette?" Reborn rose an eyebrow, putting his gun fully away. The said girl blushed, "I just wanted to make sure you're still ok, don't get any wrong ideas." The mumbling wasn't really heard by the rest, exceptions of Reborn and some others who didn't care.

"And this idiot tagged along, since he was lost." She pointed a finger at the blond next to her.

"I don't know how you keep up with the brat." Colonello said, giving a pitying look to Reborn. The hitman ignored the statement and look towards himself. Instead, he was looking at his own student.

"You really don't get it, when I say that you shouldn't worry. I thought you would patiently sit at home and become who you're suppose to be...Instead you came here." Reborn sighed, "Brat, leave. I didn't think I would have to tell you how annoying you are." The words of the hitman were cold and dry, but he didn't actually mean them fully. He just knew that the life of an assassin wasn't something he actually wanted for the girl or what she wanted herself.

At the very begining, Annette didn't run after him to become a hitman. No, she just wanted to learn how to protect herself. And now she could. The girl might get hurt by his words, but it will soon pass, when a normal life will come to her and she would be thankful to have been let go.

And just as Reborn predicted, the young, teenage girl was shocked to no believe. _'Did he really think so all of the time? Is he trying to get rid of me?'_ The questions in her head made her go crazy, but little did she show on the outside. Only what could be seen was the pale face that had turned lighter color than her skin and also the fact that she didn't move.

But snapping back to reality, she turned 180 with fast speed, but before she started walking away, Annette gave a one last glance at Reborn, "Fm, fine. Not that I have any use for you anymore either." And with that, she jumped down, sliding skillfully down the mountain sides.

That was the last she saw of Reborn or wanted to see of him

After that, her attitude to life changed completely.

Going to the nearest bar, she ordered a glass of strong brandi. The barman who was taking the order, looked at the girl. He thought that she was one of those crazy, rebellion teenagers and almost ordered for the guards to get her away. Almost. But before he could the girl showed her gun at his face, "I get what I want, when I want it."

It didn't take the barman to understand that this girl is dangerous, so he did what she told him to.

She gulped the bitter tasting alcohol in one go. Of course, it was the first time tasting the thing, so she spilled some of it out with disgust. But then after a while, she happened to like the after taste and ordered more.

Later on, with a hangover, she went and barged in to Reborn's apartment (which took a day or so to get to). She took all of her stuff, some money with her. Her agreement of her taking anything or_ stealing_, she figured was broken, since the hitman 'let her go'.

This wasn't exactly the 'normal life' Reborn had thought she would get, but one thing she knew: she didn't give a damn.

* * *

You would probably wonder why I made this chapter so quickly, well...for one, I really wanted to start with her meeting with the Varia. But the Arcobaleno part just happened to be on the way.

Well, yes, she actually really is a rebellion teenager now. But it's more like to the next level, I guess... Oh well. No more innocent Annette, and it's all~ Reborn's fault.

reviews are really lovely. So please make some.


	5. Chapter 5

author's note: Hello everyone! UWAAAHHH~ Thank you so much for all of the wonderful reviews! I was so happily shocked to get them ^^. I hope that I will be able to reach all of your expectations (don't promise anything though X3)

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR, even the plot is divided between me and Narzik ( narzik . deviantart . com), so credits to her too~

Well, let's get the show on the road~

* * *

Chapter 5:

_Their first meeting _

Three years later after the incident with Reborn, we find ourselves in an Italian village looking at a fast speeding car. It was going so crooked that one would think the driver is drunk.

Well, it's not that far from the truth. That's the reason why there was a police car and motorcycles going after it.

Finally after approximately half an hour, the car stopped...its breaks being a poor fruit market basket and a wall (and maybe even some of the sellers.

The driver of that car didn't exactly care what helped it to stop.

if you still haven't got a clue on who this crazy driver was...well, let me help you.

First - the looking 'boy' had tanned skin, nothing too dark, but more like healthy sun burn. Then black hair. which was put under a big cap. A rather feminine face.

Yes, it was no one else but our heroine - a.k.a Annette Claire.

Though sadly not many people would probably even think that 'he' was a teenage girl. On her were big pants with lots of pockets, jacket that also had a large amount of them and a cap, which took away her hair. Oh, and I totally forgot to say she also wore a scarf, that was covering her neck, and could possibly, maybe...also cover the mouth and nose.

Well, lets just say that she wasn't_ exactly_ living a normal teenage life. Oh, and if you wondered what the pockets included...it was money. Cash at that too.

Now that we got a better knowledge of out heroine, lets go back to our story.

Annette went out of the car, seeing that it was stuck and couldn't move anymore (Yeah, no really. The front was completely broken!)

It didn't take her even a minute to realize that the police was about to catch her._ 'Jeez~, if only those stupid dogs wouldn't have barked, I might have been able to escape...Now I'm stuck with running from these idiots in day-light!'_ The girl complained in her head.

"Hey, YOU! Freeze! This is the police speaking!" One of the motorcycles tried to make our heroine freeze.

"HA! Catch me if you can~ darling~." She replied, giving him an air-kiss (or whatever it is called) and winking at the cop.

With that, the teenager ran into the forest (which luckily ended up being there) like park and decided to just run not on the paths, but between the trees. That way, even if the policemen would follow, they would have to run by foot.

And just as she predicted, the men ran after her,leaving their motorcycles on the street. The only weird thing was, that the men in the car didn't come out and start chasing her. Were they thinking that two men wouldbe enough to bring down Annette? Or were they afraid to go and meet their doom as they precesily knew who lived inside that forest? I think both were more or less correct.

Well, back to the runners: Annette was already several hundred meters in front of the cops. Her only advantage at the moment was that she was faster and knew how to run without bumping into any roots or trees(or bushes). After all, no matter how much she doesn't want to admit it, the girl DID go through the hellish training with the devil himself.

It wasn't too long before she ran into a fence. A very long fence that stretched quite far. Quickly getting an idea, Annette jumped over it.

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On the other hand, in the Varia HQ sat a very irritated boss, a nagging gay guy and a bratty, 8 years old prince who happened to feel entertained by the scene in front of him. Oh, and did I almost forget the Boss's dog? Well...yeah, he was there too.

"Oh, come on boss~, you need to get some fresh air, sitting in a closed up room with no fresh oxygen is bad for your health!" The motherly-figure of the place tried to persuade the sitting teenager, who was getting seriously annoyed by him.

"Can't you see? The boss doesn't want to." The tall, spiky, fourteen year old defended his , oh-so-beloved, boss.

"It's not about the wanting, but needing Levi. Muu~, Boss, why do you have to be so stubborn?" Lussuria crossed his hands and sighed. This argument or whatever you call it already lasted for a few hours.

That probably did it. The last threat of Xanxus's patience broke and he got his flame of wrath in his hand, ready to blow anyone who stands in his way. Or...that's what everyone thought anyway.

The flame wasn't directed exactly at the annoying, colorful-haired, 17 years old, but somewhere on his end (which just happened to be where everyone else was standing too).

All of the crazy assassins dodged the flame like it was an everyday thing (Well, it was, basically). In the end, the only thing that broke was the wall behind the three boys...and maybe also a hole appeared in the, oh-so-stable, fence. Luckily or unluckily, they were on the first floor.

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And back to our heroine. Once the girl jumped over the fence, she finally saw what a mansion, the place where she trespassed, was. "Nice~. Hm..maybe I can get a look what's inside it. Oh~, Annette~, you're such a bad girl~." Our heroine talked to herself, smirking after she finished.

Yes, whoever lives in that mansion had to be at least a millionaire! And that thought made Annette hungry for stealing.

Ah. Talking about that, she saw a ...guard? with a weird uniform on. Jackpot.

The girl climbed up a tree, which just happened to be big enough for her to get to the guard withough him noticing. Yes, she was walking on branches , just as silently and skillfully as a cat.

First, she already targetted her eyes on the man's gun, which should be loaded, since he is on duty now. With that gun, she would be able to take out those annoying policemen, if they figure out she is over on the other side of he fence.

Quickly getting her plan into motion, the girl jumped on the man's shoulders, making her sit on them.

It wasn't even a second later that the wall of the mansion burst, together with the fence. This explosion made the guard unstable, and he fell on his knees.

Annette, not wanting to fall together with the man, grabbed herself onto the branch of the tree which just happened to be right above her. Afterwards, she let herself go, so she landed softly on the ground this time.

Whatever happened just then, made the fence break...meaning a bigger chance of the police finding her here came.

Cursing a bit under her breath, she leaned down to the guard, softly brushing some of his brown soft hair and giving him a peck on the cheek , "Thank you so much for your kindness." Annette said, softining her gaze at him and then pushing him, so he would fall (with force

Ahem...On the other side of the broken wall, stood curious prince, an opened-mouth idiot (sorry, I really don't like Levi...its nothing personal) whose eyes were being closed by a giggling gay guy (Yes, he was closing the younger guy's eyes, since he was still under-age...Bel was too far from Lussuria's reach, and anyways, he has his long bangs to cover the eyes.)

Well, first, let me remind you that, although we know that Annette is a girl, right at the moment, she does have an appearance of a guy. So...do you get what kind of first impression did they get from her...or in their case 'him'?

The Varia boss didn't give a damn about the scene. Of course, he did find it rather disturbing, and obviously, that 'guard' was one of his underling...but he didn't care.

He only started to get interested when a shot was heard behind him (he was about to leave the broken room).

Annette took the stolen gun and aimed it at the jaw-dropped policemen (now they understood why their higher-ups didn't follow them...it was the HQ for the Varia..uhoh) Taking the momentum of their shock, the girl used it to shoot two bullets, both right into their right-arm's elbow (she wasn't bothered to take care of the corpses, so she let them run from fear...Of course, the fear wasn't exactly from the bullet, but from the teenage assassins which they saw. But the girl didn't know that.)

Happy with her work, she grinned with satisfaction. Though that grin didn't last too long. The cold, devilish aura that promised to make her go through hell somehow came around. Slowly, almost as if her head back wooden, Annette turned her head in fear.

It didn't take her long to figure who was sending that aura to her, gulping, she thought _'Maybe not breaking in into this mansion is a better idea.'_ What? You thought the girl didn't care for her life? That's sooo not true.

Xanxus didn't really care for the trash that just happened to pass their mansion, and shoot a bunch of cops. But he won't let him go so easily, especially after the trash humiliated one of his subordinates, meaning humiliating him, the boss.

Poor Annette got goose bumps from the intense, bloody glare. That's when she decided that it was time for her to get the hell out of there.

A little, hooded baby happened to pass by the broken room. "Muu~, for one, I'm not paying for that wall." He said, frowning under the hood. But noticing that no one had any attention on him, but outside, he went to check out what was going on.

"Catch that trash." Xanxus commanded his guardians, turning around himself and going out of the room.

Mammon, saw the running figure, who was running with full speed. Being an illusionist he figured straight away that it was a girl...and not just any girl. His mood changed dramatically, and the little baby was almost smiling when he saw all of that money that the girl was carring in her pockets.

He flew with such speed, that none of the other assassins could catch up with him. Reading the fear that the girl had in her heart at the moment, he laughed inside of his head. _'Well, girly, you're not the only one...so don't feel too bad for what I'm about to do to you.'_

Annette ran with her full-speed, breaking a sweat from all of running and the extra clothing. It wasn't long before a figure came in front of her. Taking no more than a second to recognise the guy, our heroine stopped. Was she seeing things right? How could that scary guy possibly be in front of her..when she just saw him...

The girl turned around to only see the same figure. _'WHAT?'_ She screamed in her head, but tried to stay calm (which wasn't really working).

Looking at the two figures, one behind her and one in the front, Annette didn't want to think even what was happening, so she wanted to run sideways, before the same figure appeared in front of her...again.

She backed off, walking slowly to he back, but then the girl bumped into something, turning around to just see the same face.

Her rigth eye-brow was flickering, because she was nervous.

Before Annette even knew it, she was surrounded with at least a dozen of Xanxuses, all glaring intensevly at her. "KYAAAA~!" The girl finally cried out loud, not being able to hold it in anymore. All of the crimson eyes were like making holes in her (at least it felt like it for our heroine). "Ok, this is a bit over-board..." Annette muttered, before falling unconscious.

.

.

.

Opening her eyes slowly, the girl found herself in an uncomfortable position. She was sitting on a chair, hands tied up with handcuffs and feet also tied up tightly.

Looking around, she saw that she was in a room..and guess who was in the middle?_ 'Is this a deja vu or something?'_ Annette thought. Yup, no other than the boss himself, Xanxus. He was sitting comfortably in the expensive room, on a king-like chair, having his feet on the coffee table and a glass of...tequilla in his hands (at least, Annette figured that by the looks of the drink).

"You're rather comfortable there, oui?" The girl asked, smiling forcefully. No reply.

"Hmm~, the cool type, right?" she continued the one-sided conversation, putting on her sexy, fox face on. This got a bit of Xanxus's attention. But his eyes told her that he was completely not interested.

Disappointed at this developement, Annette looked around to catch something else interesting in the room.

And yes, she did find. Actually, it was what she was wearing...or more like, what she WASN'T wearing.

Her outfit at the moment was made out of a long, tight, navy dark undershirt and black leggins. "Where did all of my other clothes go?" she asked in confusion. Though again, it wouldn't even take a brain of an animal to realize where it was. Pockets full of cash come in handy to anyone, after all.

Again no reply, "You know~, if you take of these handcuffs, I will do a good job at making your day so much more fun~." Annette changed the topic, realizing the handcuffs are harder to off than the rope on her feet. Though she still made sure that the rope stayed on place, not to cause suspicions.

And yes, again...no reply, just a blank ignorance. Annette gave up. It was impossible to talk to this ...teenage boy, completely!

Dead, awkward (for the girl who is always in the middle of attention if with other people) silence was dramatic even. Luckily (or unluckily) the door burst open and a loud "VOOIII!" rang through the ears of the rooms occupants.

"Hey! We've got human ears here, you know?" The girl complained at the white-haired guy in front (or more like on the side) of her.

"Who the hell is this trash?" The oh-so-polite swordsman asked, pointing his sword at the sitting teen. "Excuse me, I might not be living in a fancy place like this...but let me tell you something..I'm no trash." Annette jerked her head high. Oh, so that readers also know, the girl secretly was trying to take the handcuffs off, making rustling sounds.

"That's true, Squ-chan. You shouldn't be that rude to such a pretty girl." A teenager with a green mohawk and other stuff on his head said. "Thank you.." This pretty girl wanted to see who she was talking to, but when she did, Annette felt like jaw-dropping at the weird style. Though she forced a smile at Lussuria anyways, "...gorgeous." Although the comment was sarcastic, the guy felt so happy to get such a compliment. "Uwaaahh~, and she is so nice too!" He squealed happily.

"Vooii! I don't care. Who the hell are you?" Squalo reasked with his loud voice, making the girl smirk, "Jealous?" she asked obviously pointing out the happy Lussuria.

Making yet another sound with her handcuffs. It was one too many. "Get those darn handcuffs off her!" Xanxus demanded, getting pissed at the sound of her trying to break free from the metal aroung her hands already for the past god knows how long (doesn't he have sharp ears?)

"Heh...A little too late." Annette noted, massaging her already free hands from the red marks that were left by the metal. At the same time she crossed her legs, letting the rest of the group see that they were free too.

Everyone's, except for Xanxus since he is the cool guy, jaw-dropped. "Ushishishi~, I knew that a normal girl wouldn't be able to get her hands on that amount of money and get that gun from the peasant so easily, almost unnoticably." Bel came into the room, saying like it was completely obvious.

"Cute kid." Annette looked at the genius, blond prince, raising her eye-brows in slight surprise, "Well, now that you figured who I am so easily, I think I don't need to be kept here any longer." The girl joyfully started walking to the window...before she felt a hand around her waist and being lifted onto someone's shoulder.

"Not so fast. The boss didn't decided what to do with you." The tall figure that carried Annette now on shoulder stated. "HEY! Let me go! This is inhuman!" She started kicking and punching the guy.

Nobody reacted on her reaction and just stared at their boss. "So, what do we do with this trespasser, boss?" Bel asked, curious on the torture they're going to use on her.

Not liking where this conversation was going, Annette thought up of a plan B.

"Ah~. W-where do you think you're touching me?" The girl said, face blushing and mouth breathing hard.

Well, you might've thought that the assassins wouldn't pay any attention to those kind of weird sound the girl was making, but being teenage boys (Bel included..he isn't a teenager yet, but is still a boy, you know..) ...which they are, it was just... weird.

I mean, although they all are professional killers...ehh, well, none of them had any lovers or love-affairs for that matter (we don't know about Mammon, but he isn't around anyways).

Finally, when all the heads finally turned to face the girl, Annette stopped moaning. Luckily for the poor Levi, who was beat-red at the moment. It wasn't like he was doing anything to the actress on his shoulder, and the rest knew it well.

"Hmm~, jeezz, took you long enough." The black-haired cat-face said, "Well, if you're willing to carry me somewhere, I at least want it to be someone...who is more handsome." The look on her face made it obvious what she meant.

With that, she lifted her leg, high enough to stabilize on Levi's back of the head and jump up from his grab. And somehow she measured exactly to be able to land right into the white-haired swordman's hands - bridal style.

"Like you, hottie~." She whispered into Squalo's ear, biting a bit of it. The intensions in her eyes and the smirk were clear as day. The poor teenage boy, didn't let his face flush red, no! Anything but that! So he just made a scowl on his face and put his hands down, so that she would fall.

But sadly, for Squalo, Annette already had her arms around his neck, "Oh~, I know what you mean~." The glint of winning was in her eyes, yet again. She was obviously playing around with these...boys. It was so much fun for her.

"Ushishishishi~, the second-in-command seems to be having girl-probems~." Belphegor grinned, noting that he was enjoying himself.

Squalo noted to kill the little bratty prince later as a vein was popping on his forehead, as he was still fighting with his blush.

Though what surprised everyone was that Annette let go of the swordsman, as she noted the brilliant looking tiara on Belphegor's head. "Oh~, you don't have to be jealous, cutie~." The girl said, walking her usual cat-walk, letting her hair sway from one side to another.

Then she went down to one knee and placed a kiss on prince's cheek, while pocking the other.

"Hmm~, well. I would love to stay and have fun with you all, but I think I'll take my leave here." The girl waved her hand and smiled forcefully, opening a window.

But before she was about to jump, a glass full of tequilla hit her head. Suddenly the temperature dropped in the room drastically.

This time it was Annette's turn to give out the killing aura, turning her head dramatically towards the thrower.

"Why the hell did you do that?" The tone of her voice also dropped. Everyone else in the room sweat-dropped. Her aura itself could suffocate a normal person. Fortunately they were anything but normal, but it still was unpleasant for them even.

No reply was made, yet again. This pissed our heroine off. "So! Mr. Cool will just stay silent, huh?" The ticked off girl, was pissed off at many things about Xanxus, and the biggest one of them was that...Even though he already saw her, he didn't get moved by her charms!

And it was something her pride took part in - To make any guy fall for her.

But before anything could go on any further, Bel noticed something in the reflextion of the opened window. "Where is my crown?" He hissed at the only girl in the room. Took you long enough genius.

And as if it was replying to its master, the tiara fell from god knows where on Annette. "Oh..my bad. Where did that come from?" Our heroine asked, as if she really didn't know. The deathly glare softened as she looked at the, now ready to throw his knives at any minute, prince.

"Thief. I'll ripe you into tiny pieces." Bel grinned a grin that promised a lot of pain.

"Oww, you're really adorable~. But you know, cutie, accusing people of something they didn't do, is pretty bad." The oblivious sound in her voice made it sound so much more realistic.

"Ushishishi~, seems like the thief is more stupid than I thought." Varia's genius threw his knives.

Annette, not wanting to check if the knives were real or not, dodged them with ease. Then, being a pro at what she does, the girl noticed straight away the wires and dodged them too. Well, robbing bangs once in a while does give you that advantage, especially if what they have is electrified lasers.

"Honey, you'll need more than that to bring _me_ down." The black-haired teenage girl noted in disappointment. Bel's vein on the forehead popped too. Then he started to throw more and more knives, which Annette still dodged with ease.

Getting tired of this nonsense, Xanxus fired his flame of wrath between the two. Though he did get impressed with how the girl was managing against Bel. Thats when he decided...

"You'll serve here."

* * *

Eheheheh~, Annette serving the Varia...wonder what will that bring us to.

Well, I've gotta say I had fun writting this chapter. And yes, our darling did become a thief...and a pretty good one at that XD (stealing Bel's tiara)

Yes, I don't believe that any of the guys from the Varia had any love-affairs before, and they ARE teenagers..oh, come on~ who wouldn't want to see a blushing sharkie? I know I would.

Anyways, hope you enjoyed. Please leave a review, since I want to know what you think of this chapter~.


	6. Chapter 6

author's note: Hello everyone! Thank you again for all your wonderful reviews! I'm so happy you won't be able to imagine it ( *author jumping up and down having rainbows and hearties around her* ) No...you won't be able to imagine it ^^.

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR, even the plot is divided between me and Narzik ( narzik . deviantart . com), so credits to her too~.

Let the show begin!

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Chapter 6:

_Varia-quality maid_

"You'll serve here." Xanxus commands, giving out a satisfied smirk.

When the info got through to everyone else in the room, they looked at their boss, as if he was trying to make a prank on them or something.

"Serve...as in a maid?" Annette asked, not sure where this was all going. I mean, it's not like she knows what a 15 year old teenager means by 'serve'. And she was still shocked from the flame. "And what the- was that just now?"

"OH! Boss, that's a wonderful idea!" The only person in the room to think that said it out loud, ignoring the girl's question. It was the eldest one of everyone in the room, and yet...one of the least respected. Though Squalo for once seemed to more or less agree.

"Don't know how wonderful it is... But that way we'll be able to watch her, if she is from an enemy's family." The second-in-command silver-head said.

"Ushishishi~, if that's the case, why don't we just kill her on the spot?" The spoiled Varia genius asked, taking out his knives already.

"No. She'll come in handy as a hostage." Squalo seriously explained. The girl gave out a playful smile, after shrugging her weird vision of a strong flame thinking that it was just all in her head, "You know, if you want me to stay, just say so." She walked back to the silver-head and brushed her hand against the outlines of his chin. Though then Annette let go and continued to walk towards the chair that she woke up in.

Sitting down, she crossed her legs and then gave a 'lets talk business' look.

"First, is the food and drinks included in the offer?" She asked, saying 'drinks' wondering if they understood what she means. I hope you did.

"Why, of course it is, dear. We might be a bunch of bad assassins, but our subordinates all get what's needed." The guy with a green mohawk and other colors hair started blabbering. Maybe this time, one too many.

"Assassins?" The girl asked, raising an eyebrow as if she didn't believe it.

"Heh, don't tell me you don't even know who we are?" The tallest one of them asked.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Annette laughed like there was no tomorrow, "That explains the swords and knives!" Holding her stomach the teenage girl started to calm down.

Everyone, including Xanxus, stared at her, as if she was a psycho.

"Muu~, why is there so much noise? I can't concentrate on counting my new found money..." A baby flew into the room with a hood, covering half of his face and a big serpent, working as a halo for the baby(Annette wasn't sure what gender it was, but figured since everyone else are guys, this one is also).

"Soo...is the baby also a part of your-" The girl felt her ears standing up, when she understood what money was just 'newly found'. "I'll take the job." Annette announced, smirking at the boss, who was sitting in the King-like chair, as if challenging him to say 'deal is done' or something.

But then the shoulder-long black-headed teenager added as well, "Only if I'll have the access to enter into all. of. your. rooms~." And together with that, she pointed with her index finger at all of them.

Levi and even Squalo blushed rather drastically. Bel just had a disgusted look on him (his mouth was enough to show how much he despised that idea). Lussuria just looked excited (probably already planing a girly-night out or something in the head). Xanxus, even, widened his eyes by a few centimetres (but not much more). Mammon, didn't show any emotion, since he just came into the room (and thought that these kids were just pitiful), he even left straight away, figuring that the place calmed down.

"I meant, I'll need to clean them, right? This may not be in my profession, but...I guess I'll be able to put some woman's touch into this place." The girl answered everyone's looks. Though she was satisfied with the boys' reactions.

"Sure, and with your kind of 'woman's touch' we won't ever see the stuff ever again." The 8 years old mumbled in sarcasm.

Though no once payed attention to him, I mean, no one ever dared to go against the Varia if they could help it.

For the girl, it was thrilling to know the fact that they were assassins and not just some spoiled brats, which made Annette much more interested, though she still didn't care. She will be out of here once she will get that money back and maybe steal some more hearts for the fun of it, just like how she already did with the silver-headed swordsman.

"Accepted, trash." The boss of the Varia accepted, giving a Xanxus smile at her (you know what that is, right? More like a rape face...you saw it before, right?).

"Ain't no trash, as I told you before. Je m'appelle Annette, Annette Claire." The girl intoduced herself, switching from Italian to French, standing up from the chair.

"Well~, let me walk you around. Now that you're going to work here, you should get to know this place, Anne-chan." The gay guy hopped to the girl and took her by the arm and pulled her with him out of the room.

"Ah..and you are?" Annette asked, sort of uncomfortable in the position she is in and with the nickname she just got.

"I'm Lussuria~, but you can call me Lussu-nee~ since we'll be really close from now on." The guy with glasses and fluffy stuff on his black coat noted.

For the first time since the girl woke up, she felt like gulping. Lets say the girl wasn't that great with handling gay guys, like the ones she was walking with right now especially.

"Oh~, and since forever I hoped that we would get a girl here, so I already have a perfect uniform for you~!" Lussuria announced, letting go of our heroine and slamming a big door open, presenting the room to Annette, "This is my room. Just wait here~ I'll get it for you."

"You have an amazing hour-glass shape, so this should fit you." The guy noted, going to the walk-in closest, which was rather big and filled with glamorous and colorful costumes. He took a black dress out of there.

It was a maid's dress. And a pretty sexy one at that. It had half to the knees long skirt, which was flurry with a white a cute white apron attached to it (the only thing that makes it look like a maid's dress). The top was a rather tight, because it had a lace going up to the very chest. Then, as a decoration, there were two fluffy rings for the arms, where on one of them was the Varia symbol. (If you don't get the describtion, just look at the image of Annette on top)

"Cute, isn't it? Why don't you put it on now?" The excited Varia assassin asked our heroine.

"Sure. Why not?" The girl decided, thinking that her job will become even easier to steal the heart of that boss of theirs.

Taking off her clothes right where she stood, the girl stood in her underwear, putting the dress on. Lussuria got a bit surprised at her lack of any embarrassement at all, but didn't seem to mind.

When she finished doing the last touches on herself, she thought it was perfect.

"You're just so pretty, Anne-chan!" Lussuria looked how wonderful the dress fit her.

"Of course I am." The girl said like it was the most obvious thing in the world (well, she definitely believed it), swishing her hair back with her hand, feeling even more confident than before.

"Ok~, now you look for the job, shall we get along with other things?" "I guess." And with that, both of them left in a much merrier mood (since Annette figured that Lussuria might actually be able to help her with their boss. So she decided to act nicer).

"The boss's name is Xanxus. Then the silver colored hair guy is Squalo, his full name is Superbi Squalo, but since he is more like a sharky, we call 'im Squalo. And you actually made him blush...you know that you're the first person to do that?" Lussurbia was telling her about everyone.

"Heh. That's because I'm the best one there is~." Ok, lets say that the girl's self-confidence was at the top of the scale. "You sure are good~. But making the boss fall will be more difficult. Are you really up for the challenge?" Lussuria asked, already guessing what was in the girl's plans.

Not getting surprised at that, Annette just answered straight forwardly, "What challenge? I'll have him in no time~." Her eyes had a spark of a flame and a grin grew of her face.

"Hmm~, this is going to be interesting." Lussuria just noted, continuing to tell her about the mansion size HQ and the other's names. Though he missed to tell her about Vongola, just in case if she really is an enemy and a good actor.

.

Finally, when Annette was able to get rid of Lussuria. The thought that she is finally free to do what she wanted to made it feel exciting.

The girl 'decided' to start 'cleaning' up this Mammon's room, or whatever the name was.

Now that she remembered how the baby looked, he seemed somehow familiar. But then, not bothering to scroll down through the amount of people she met already, it was just a very big list (at least to her).

Soundlessly, the girl walked into the room of the infant, locking the door behind her.

The place was pitch black, with curtains closed, there was absolutely no light in there. "You have the nerves to walk into my territory, girly." A squeaky voice was heard from one of the corners of the room (or that's what it sounded like). "I don't think a baby like you can call me 'girly'." Annette shotback an answer, looking right and left to see where the voice was coming from (though that was pointless, since the place was pitch black and no, she didn't have super eyesight).

"I'm no normal baby." The voice replied. "Yeah, I figured...you were floating in the air... you're an illusionist or whatever Lussuria called you." The girl started to feel uncomfortable, leaning closer to the door.

"Yes, I'm an illusionist. Though for other information, I'll charge you." The uninterested voice finished talking and never said a word again. "Heh. You already took my money, you can't charge me." Annette send a glare at the baby, wherever it was, which, though, was rather useless...since the room was dark.

Understanding that she was being looked down at (BY A BABY...Hello?) the girl jerked her head and left the room (she can always come up with an other plan).

Taking the liberty to look around the place, maybe finding something interesting that she will be able to sell later for a good prize.

That's how the life continued for Annette, Varia's maid.

* * *

Ok, so here is the next chap. Hope you enjoyed it ^^.

Yes, Annette didn't become a guardian straight away, no duh... (and no, it wasn't because I wanted to put her in a maid's outfit..no, not at all *looks away*)

Next chapter is going to have more screen-shots with the pairing~, so look forward to it!

And since I wanna know what you guys thought of this story, please review!


	7. Chapter 7

author's note: Hello everyone~~! Thank you again for all the wonderful reviews~~. Ok, I just noticed I haven't answered one of the questions from the reviews in the last chap. I'm sorry about that.

Well, the answer is - Yes, she is going to meet up with Reborn, the baby. But that's going to be a bit later in the story. Don't worry, I'm not going to make you wait that long ^^ (I think...)

Ok...let's get on with the show~~.

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR, and even the plot was helped to make by the lovely Narzik, which you can find on DeviantART . com

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Chapter 7:

_The drinking competition._

Being a Varia's maid isn't the hardest thing in the world actually. Well, not if you're someone like Annette and in the HQ you practically have only men (and tomboy women, who don't actually count).

Sure the main six males of the place were weirdos and mentally ill, in other words, rather psycho. But come on, it's six out of 50! That's not a very big number, right?

So, that's how we get a relaxing maid, drinking sweet red wine on a soft armchair, having her legs crossed and on the small table in front.

"Seniora Annette, I have done everything you asked~." A twenty years old, average looking Varia subordinate stated happily, leaning closer to the girl, "It's time for that reward you promised." The guy was a cm away from biting the said girl's neck, when our heroine smirked and pushed the subordinate's face away.

"Oh, Leonidas~, don't do that here. I'm shy~." The black-haired teenager lied bluntly, acting like a shy girly.

This act made Leonidas even hungrier than before, it's not everyday a man in the Varia got to enjoy a woman's body after all. This made him push his way even more.

Annette jumped from her seat, still looking straight into the guy's eyes. Almost like hypnotizing him. He tried to jump on her, but the girl was quick on her reflexes, which made yet another poor victim kiss the cold ground floor.

Yes. That's right. That's just the way her life was suppose to go~!

Now she only had to get her money back from the flying baby and for the fun of it, make the boss fall head over hills for her on the way. After that, she could run away from this place, and never return to the horrifying place.

Finally deciding that she is ready to get her money back, the girl focused on opening that door into the closed up room of the baby illusionist.

Though she definitely regretted her actions. It was the second time that she already got caught by a shocking surprise.

Behind those doors, Annette saw a nightmare, a nightmare she long time ago wanted to forget, but couldn't.

What? You thought that the girl was fearless? Ok...maybe she mostly can be considered as such, but come on, let her be, she is still human ( I think).

Yes, behind those doors was a room, covered with..._snakes_. The despicable, slimy, deadly poisonous reptiles.

Though the thought of them wasn't so bad, really. What she feared was what picture came afterwards. The picture of her, a 6 years old kid, stuck in a room, filled with snakes for several hours straight. That was the way Reborn thought would be most useful for her to get rid of fear. As he called it the 'face-your-fear project' or as Annette called it the 'Terrifying-torture-from-hell'.

Anyways, Varia's maid was holding on to the door handle as if her life was dependent on it. Her eyes widened in shock, Annette slowly pointed at the biggest snake in the room, "W-what are th-this things doing in this room?" Her voice was rather out of character it seemed.

"For trespassing my room, I'll charge you an A-class mission." The illusionist came out of nowhere in particular, making the creatures disappear, making the girl jaw-drop.

"Just what in devil's word was that?" Annette asked, totally confused on what was going on.

"Ushishishi~, the maid's stupid enough not to know illusions. Good one, Mammon." A certain bratty (in the girl's opinion) prince jumped into the room through...a window? Wait...how was that possible? All of them were closed! Well, unlike us, the black-haired teen knew very well just how he got in. Though, it will stay a secret for us.

Trying hard not to show the effect those words were doing for her, the maid decided to just plain dumb and innocent, "Now, now, Bel-" "It's Master for you, maid." The 8 years old commented, making it clear he was from a filthy rich family where maids and butlers were calling him by that.

Annette tried her best in keeping her cool. And just not to let the boy die from her intense stair, she stretched her mouth, making it sort of look like an attempt of smiling, "Master then... you shouldn't say things as such. I'm only a humble maid that just works here after all. On the other hand, you all are professional assassins, who are suppose to be very familiar with 'illusions'."

The last sentence did make sense, but Bel was annoyed at this kind of attitude, did she take him for a fool to fall for the act? Though he let it go for now, because he had plans to annoy Mammon for the rest of the day already.

"Exactly, so scram, the prince wants to be entertained by the baby." The young spoiled assassin commanded, rather sharply.

Annette then left the room, just before exploding and shooting the kid in the head. Well, she would've, if only she wouldn't be stuck in this mansion, like a slave.

One thing she loved about life was..._freedom_. Yup, steal stuff from this place, take a bit of that from there, maybe play around with guys a bit. It was her life and she loved it. There was nothing that tied her up to anything, well...until now.

She had to get that money which she oh-so-loved. It took her several days to steal it from the bank and now, it's gone! That's why she is determined to find out just what's inside that room. Though for now, she should come up with a different strategy.

And with her head stragetically thinking of a way to torture the Varia's genius to death, she couldn't concentrate.

So, yet again, another thing was put on the imaginary to-do list: kill Belphegor before leaving (or just piss him off, which she was rather good at).

Anyways, at the moment, the girl was storming down the hallway. "Master? Master?" She placed her hands on the head, so it wouldn't explode out of frustration, "You serious?"

The black-haired teen lost it and kicked the nearest door to her open.

Though somehow, kicking that door didn't only get rid of her anger completely.. It even made her mood do a 180 twist.

Guess what was behind the doors? Well, just to give you hint, there was a whole lot of alcoholic drinks. Yup, it was a storage.

"Hmm~, maybe this place isn't that bad after all~." The girl gave out a satisfied smirk, getting her hands prepared to start 'cleaning' this place up.

"Heh, you won't even last one bottle." A low, mocking voice said. The owner of the voice seemed to be in a rather good mood that day, for god knows what reason.

Turning her head slowly and carefully, Annette looked at the said owner. "Ehh_...salut_?" the girl awkwardly greeted in french the 15 years old boss of the HQ she was in. She obviously wasn't expeting_ him_ to be in a _storage room_ for alcohol. _'Well, this is awkward...'_ she thought, not sure what to do next.

"Anyways, in general, weak trash like you shouldn't even be here." The guy continued, taking another sip from his glass with brandy(?) (Annette wasn't quite sure, since the lights in the room were rather dim)

And somehow, the girl completely forgot then, that she was suppose to 'steal this guy's heart'. She was so pissed off with all the looking downs on her that she couldn't hold it in anymore.

"That's it! Are you saying that girls can't drink?" Annette burst for the first time in several years already. And it didn't seem like Xanxus particularly minded. If anything, he felt himself to be mildly entertained by the girl's bickering.

How could anyone tell? Well, that huge smirk (or what they call a 'smile' of Xanxus's) on his face gave a rather big hint.

"Let's see who is the trash here!" The girl's eyes were burning with competition aura, "The first one down is the weakling!" She announced, slaming with her fist, the small table where the Varia's boss had his feet at the moment, making it sound almost like a command.

The idea didn't seem to be too bad. After all, he never even once lost a competition with drinking involved (he didn't participate in many) and he wasn't going to loose this time, just cuz the opponent is a girl.

Xanxus then moved his feet from the table, stood up and took out two bottles from the storage on the wall, throwing one of them to Annette, "Accepted." He replied, opening the bottle.

"You better not be half-assed about this." The girl commented, opening the drink which she just received too.

_A few hours later... _

"God damn it..is this all you had?" A 15 years old girl asked, hiccuping a bit on her words.

"Tch, trashes." A rather moody teenage boy said. Though he wasn't quite stable on his mind either.

"Hmm...if there is nothing more to drink, we can't settle this...Oh, I know." Annette announced, taking out a gun from underneath her skirt of the maid's outfit, which she stole from Leonidas...as much as she remembered.

Then the longer, straighter black-haired teen took one of the many empty bottles in the room, almost tripping on some, and placing them on the table.

Later, she went a bit back, and then shot all the empty bottles with one bullet, making them all break into small shattering pieces.

"How is THAT for a weakling!" She stated afterwards, looking proudly at her work.

Though before she knew it, Xanxus already giving a 'are seriously that weak?' look and walking towards one of the small windows and its wall.

He then made his hand burn with the flame of wrath and bursting the wall into million of pieces. His face was concentrated and...usual, but that didn't last long. Since he lost his balance and fell.

"HA! Who is the trash now?" Annette blurted with satisfaction. Though a second later, she fell herself, right into Xanxus's muscular arms. (I swear she wasn't aiming. And yes, although he is a teen, he did have muscular arms, come on...He cares for how he looks, right?)

_Another few hours later..._

"VOOIIII!" A certain 14 years old swordsman of the Varia was loosing his mind, "WHERE THE HELL IS THAT TRASHY BOSS?"

Yes, the whole Varia (at least the main guardians) was looking for their 'beloved' boss. It's been almost a day since anyone has seen him.

And out of impatience, our sharky burst the door open, looking around if he was anywhere there.

Well...yes, he did end up being there..with a company of...their maid. sleeping. She was in his arms, almost cuddling in her maid's uniform. In a room full of empty bottles. Just what the- happened here?

Squalo for some reason felt his heart break in two though_. 'Damn, lousy boss and stupid maid..._' The poor boy thought, before a vein popped on his forehead, "VOII! YOU, TRASHY BOSS, THE WHOLE DAMN VARIA WAS LOOKING FOR YOU! THERE IS A GOD DAMN MEETING SOON ENOUGH!"

But as a result of his shouting, Squalo got two people glaring daggers at him, "Shut the hell up." Both of them said in a low tune, making it twice as scary as when Xanxus does it alone.

This shut the shark up immediately. Though not for long.

"What in the devil's name happened here anyways?" Wow, he could actually not shout on normal terms?

By the time, the two got their conscious back (more or less) The other four of the group came too.

"You made the boss drink all that, so that you'll be able to use him?" A spiky, tall teenager concluded, pointing a finger at the girl.

"What the hell do you think of me, trash?" A certain pissed off boss finally spoke, threatening his future lightning guardian to death with his ultimate glare.

"I'm so s-""Muu...I don't care what happened here, but who is going to pay for the repair bills?" A very money-loving baby said, flying into the room.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll take half of the responsibility for this." Annette noted, smiling sweetly, "I think this should be enough." She extended her hand, on which was...Bel's silver tiara.

"Ushishishishi~, boss, can the prince kill this maid finally?" Varia's genius said, taking out his knives.

"Do whatever." Xanxus replied, which everyone understood as a 'yes'.

"Ahh~, how can you say it's whatever? I...I thought we had something special!" Annette said in a dramatic way, with a bit higher pitch of a voice than she intended.

Her drinking partner stopped for a minute, as if thinking. Then a disturbed look came upon his face.

"I never was** that** drunk." He answered with a touch of unusual concern in his voice though still in his normal bass voice (didn't he hit puberty early).

All the other males in the room jaw-dropped. They didn't think their tough, hardcore, power-obsessed boss would EVER say that...  
Though then again, they forgot one thing: they never saw him with girls before either.

But before they knew it, he was back to his usual self.

A frown was put and he left the room.

The rest followed after their boss...except for the Big Sis of the place.

Annette's eye and fingers were twitching. The black eye-color turning darker than they were. "Why? Why doesn't he react how I want him too?" She whined, but then a smirk was placed back, "Although the last reaction was a rather spectacular sight~. Doesn't seem like he is very dense then. I'll have to give it a bit more work than for the rest." The girl said to no one in particular.

Though sadly, she didn't notice that she wasn't alone in the room, "Anne-chan~, you ARE pretty good. I never thought boss would be actually fall for anyone~!" The flamboyant older teenager complimented the maid.

"Fm, Lussuria, you seem to be really underestimating me. I'm a pro at this, after all." The girl smirked, brushing her hair back and standing up.

Though unconsciously she never stopped looking at the door, where Xanxus just walked out of.

Lussuria noticed this, and believed that it was a start of something that neither of them still were not very common with. And he was going to help that believe to come true~~.

* * *

Fufufufu~, isn't Lussuria just evil? But yess...This is where their relationship will..might or might not..begin. Read and find out ^^.

I'm sorry for the late update..ehehehe~. Was forced to go with the family to some relatives place for a while...and I had no computer there =_=, so yeah...that's why I'm uploading now.

**Oh, and a short announcement - I'll be gone for about three weeks to somewhere far, far, far, far away. A place where good internet is unheard off, seriously. So I won't be able to post anything then...And afterwards school is gonna start (why does school have to start in the middle of august?), so the chapters might be coming slower... T-T Why does time fly so fast?**

Ok, so...I hope you liked this chapter. Please review for me to find out ^^.

Ciao for three weeks~, hope you enjoy the rest of your holiday to the fullest!


	8. Chapter 8

author's note: Hello people~! Yay! I'm back from far, far, far away!

Ok, so our dear pair just had a drinking competition...wait for more to come XD ~~ (no, I swear I'm not excited...)

This chapter is going to have mostly only Lussuria in it, so don't get surprised by the title, ok?

disclaimer: I don't own Khr, except my dear Annette. And the awesome ideas for the story are given by Narzik . deviantart. com (so credits for her too~)

let's start the show~!

* * *

Chapter 8

_Shopping like a pro_

Annette was going to her room in grumpy mood._ 'Just why did that** boy** act like he didn't care?' _Then the girl stopped, not wanting to believe the thought that just went by her head._  
_

_'Could it be...I'm losing my touch?...NO, no, no...I'm 16! That's means my charms are suppose to be having _twice_ the effect! Why doesn't it work on him?!' _The maid groand and then continued.

_'Though, thinking about it, everyone else is at my knees...so the problem is not in me..but in HIM!_' Then an idea flew by Annette's head_, '...What if he is like the stupid master? I mean, he could be just _playing_ to be a boy with no interest for girls ..or not?' _

Then the girl opened the door to her own really small room.

The room consisted of a bed, a table with a chair, and a mini cupboard all cramped up together._ 'And why does a maid have to be cramped up like this anyways?! If anything, I should be living in a huge king-size room with a bathroom and everything included! Sheesh~, just who do they think they are?!'  
_

Oh, and just to add to it, her room was also in the far corner of the top floor, away from the huge stairs, with no windows.

If anything, the Varia were a cautions bunch and didn't want to have her escape without their knowledge. I mean, they still didn't know if she is an enemy spy or just a regular self-loving thief.

Sure they also had cameras in there too, just in case.

Though one thing they didn't think through, is the fact that Annette was a skilled thief that already lived in these kind of conditions since three years ago.

"Come to me, babies~!" Her mood changed dramatically as she opened a drawer, taking out several expensive and beautifully carved golden stuff, "They are stupid for underestimating me like this~."

Then a cold chuckle left her, "And they call themselves assassins. It's a miracle they are still not dead and their mansion is not fully robbed."

"Did you say something, Anne-chan?" Lussuria opened the door, his mohawk and glasses peaking through. This frightened the poor teenage girl to the point that she jumped back, closing the drawer with such speed that a bang was heard, "L-lussuria? W-...is there something you want?" Annette tried to act innocent, but by her face you could see that she was holding something secret.

The flamboyant guy wasn't exactly in the mood to care what it was, since he had better stuff to do, so he just answered straight to the point, "Anne-chaan~, come shopping with me~!"

The poor girl was so lost in the moment that the guy just took her by the hand and lead her out.

When the maid woke up from the moment, she was already walking next to Lussuria down the big, expensive stairs (ok, the Varia HQ is like a mini-er version of the Vongola HQ, right? And that one is huge, like a castle).

"W-why do you wanna go shopping?" Annette asked, trying to softly get away from the guy's tight grip. And yes, although he was gay, he had well-trained arms and hands, making it really hard to get your hand away from his grip.

"Well~, I'm going on a mission tomorrow, to China. And I have to look my best of course." Then the sun guardian turned around, with a puppy dog face and said, "But no one else wants come with me...I have no idea why...shopping is so much fun! That's why I'm bringing you along~!"

The girl was about to fall from this reply,_ 'Of course they don't want to come with you...they're boys after all!'_

But then something caught Annette's attention: Lussuria's happy face. _'Ok, maybe I can enjoy this too. I never had a friend to shop with before either..._' And for a minute there, her face softened and she smiled sincerely,_ 'Maybe this place isn't that bad after all..'._

Going out of town in a limo, Lussuria and Annette (who felt like she is finally getting some fairness, a.k.a. riding in a limo) stood in front of a huge shopping center.

And when they went in, color and different styles sparkled. "Oh, and Anne-chan, you don't have too many outfits too, right? We could look some up!" The guy gave a very bright look, that Annette even had to turn away, since it was just too much.

"I guess I could get a few clothes from here. This is the first place I see, that has style all over." The teenager looked all around with a satisfied feeling, she is finally where she belongs!

Everyone was staring at them, since there was a tall (for a girl) model-like teenage girl in a maid's outfit walking with style and huge confidence and a flamboyant teen who definitely could've pass as a fashion designer or a manager.

_'Was there a fashion show coming soon?'_ They all thought, but then, since there was no stage to perform, the idea was dropped.

Annette's confidence rose drastically from the people's looks. Though she has been hiding her appearances and changing them for the past few years, the girl still had a very good sense of showing-off.

"Hey, Lussuria, what do you think about this?" The girl took out a dark purple, long and cute t-shirt. "I think with this belt and a few more accessories, this should look really great on me, oui?"

"Hmm~, no." Was the straight answer he gave her, after a period of one second thinking about it.

The black-haired teen was heart-broken. That was the first time someone said 'no' to her choice! Was the world ending?!

Then she turned around, so she could see it herself. 'Maybe he is right...or am I having a nightmare?' And just so that she wouldn't embarrass herself anymore, she put the shirt right back, disappointed.

"This will look gorgeous on you!" Lussuria took out a yellow cocktail dress with fluffy stuff going down the front-right. Annette was about to face-palm, god knows how she didn't like to put bright color on, since she thought it made her look like a clown.

"No." She replied, when the guy tried to give the small dress to her. "Oh, come on! Just try it on! It will look great on you, I promise!"

"No." The girl sticked to her answer. "Please~?" "No." "Pretty please?" "No is a no. Anyways, weren't we suppose to look something for your mission?" she tried to change the subject.

"Oh, come on sweetheart~! Don't change the subject!" Lussuria started running to his companion, who was already next to the doors and about to step out. Then an idea struck him, "What if Boss likes girls in color~?"

It didn't even take a second for Annette to grab the dress from the guy's hands and run to the changing room.

The door from the changing room opened and a pretty latin-style girl with a bright yellow cocktail dress. "See, what did I tell you?" The gay teen clapped his hands, in which were a pair of yellow high-heel shoes with bows on their backs, "Now, put this too, hun."

"Sure thing~." Annette took the shoes put them on, and suddenly she was the same height as Lussuria himself, "You know, I love this!" She said, grinning and looking at the reflection of herself in the mirror.

Then a few pins were found of red and green color. The guy put them on for her, making her not very long hair, seem extended, since on those pins were a pair of pretty, long looking stripes.

It also happened that the shop had scarves of various colors too. So they picked one that had feathers and took two, on green and one orange.

The green on Lussuria took for himself and put it around his neck, while Annette took the orange one and placed it around her back, holding it with her arms.

When they were done, the people that passed by definitely could say that the background behind the two was shining and right on top said 'the glamorous duo' in bold capital letters.

"Lussuria, hun, you're amazing at this!" Annette kept on admiring how she looked in the mirror.

"Ohoho~, don't mention it, Anne-chan!" The guy next to her waved his hand in a 'no-no, it's ok' way.

Well, now that they were done, the only thing that was left was to pay, and since Annette didn't have a wallet (or a bank account to begin with), while Lussuria went to see stuff for himself, the girl went to check out the bags.

Ladies of high class were seen everywhere_, 'Ha! Poor women~. I guess I'll borrow some euros from this girl~.'_ Varia's maid smirked and when the girl that she picked put her bag down, so that she could sit down and try some shoes, our heroine was swift and fast at taking out a wallet and turning away, before anyone managed to notice.

'Now, let's see if there is any cash in here...' Annette looked through the wallet and found several _five-hundred euro_ bills. Grinning to herself, 'Stupid rich people are the best targets after all~. Well, this should be enough for my shopping~.'

Taking the cash, the teenager just left the wallet on the cashier's desk, since there was no more use to it.

"Are you done, Anne-chan?" A gay-tone came from our heroine's back, making the girl jump (again). "L-lussuria, you shouldn't scare me like that~!" The girl exclaimed, holding her hand on her chest and breathing deeply.

Chuckling, the older teenager, just patted the girl's head, "I got an adorable outfit too~, I'll show it to you later~! So, shall we go?" Annette nodded enthusiastically.

"Hey, Anne-chan, what do you think of everyone in the Varia?" The flamboyant sun guardian asked out of the blue, as they walked out of the shop.

"What's Varia?" The girl asked, seriously confused, since she never heard the name before, and yes, no one mentioned it before (although she already was living in the mansion for at least a few weeks trying to get the money from Mammon and stealing other things on the way).

"Oh, right, you don't know." Lussuria remembered, "We are the Varia, the elite assassination squad~!"

Annette rolled her eyes, "Assassins..yeah, right. You're just a bunch of spoiled teenagers who live on someone's money." And then she sighed, "Alright, you have a bunch of weapons, wuhoo~! But that doesn't mean anything."

The guy stood there, wondering really hard _'Just who is this mysterious girl?'_

"Don't look at me like that. I might not know much about you guys, but all I have to say is that you don't look the part." The maid added, not wanting Lussuria to suddenly get mad at her, since they were having a pretty good time now. So she rapidly also said, "I mean, if you look at it, your boss - Xanxus. He is just an alcoholic who does nothing but sit around the whole day. Next is - that white-haired 'swordsman' (here she emphasized the word with her fingers). He is just loud, swinging his sword around anywhere he goes. A professional is nowhere close to being as loud as him."

Taking a breath, the girl continued, "next is that kid - Bel, was it? He is just a plainly spoiled little brat that loves his swords, but his age is no good. It's way too young to even think of him being a pro, although his skills are not bad for a 8 years old. And lastly...the dog. How did he even get here? And he is one of the higher-ranks?! Ok, he might be tall, but that's as far as pro he goes. And the way he adores, admires, loves the boss...I hate people who do stuff for others. The only one in this world you can trust is yourself, and be your own boss." (By the way, she specifically forgot to mention Lussuria, since she knew that this guy is much friendlier than the rest, and will get hurt if she said that he looks like a 'gay lord')

The serious tone that Annette was using surprised her companion. '_So she even had _that_ kind of character in her?'_

"Hmm, but what about all of those boys who were doing stuff for you, do they count?" The guy asked, curious to how she is going to react. But our heroine hardly even did, she just swayed her hair back and answered, "Who said I liked any of them?"

"So you don't like people in general?" Lussuria questioned more, he wanted to find out more about the girl after all.

"No, not really. I prefer to be left alone most of time...But that's probably because I grew up pretty much alone." She answered, not really getting where this conversation was going to.

Then, after a few minutes, the gay guy jumped up and down, clapping his hands in fast motion, "Oh dear~, if you're a loner too, than you really would make a perfect couple with boss~!"

This sudden exclamation also got Annette to fall, "Wait, wait, wait! I'm not signing up for becoming your boss's lover. All I want is to get him back for breaking my pride!"

Lussuria gave her the 'yeah, right?' look, which was answered by a "Hey! Let's go have some Buche de Noel (a very sweet french Christmas roll cake)! That cafe seems to have it~!"

Getting stunned by the sudden change of subject the teen just answered, "Sure, hun."

Looking at the different varieties of Buche de Noel, the girl's eyes sparkled.

Although it was the end of summer, it seemed like that shop sold different pastries all year round.

"Do you want a piece of our home-made pastries, beauty?" A french-looking guy, with curly hair, in his late teen years asked, obviously staring lovingly at our heroine. "I'll have that one over there~" she answered, after what she stared back at the boy's deep dark brown eyes, smiling innocently (although remember the outfit?)

After they sat down, the both of them had a glass of italian liquor and pieces of the sweet, chocolate filled cake pieces.

"But you know..." the girl started out of the blue, playing with the last pieces of cake, "This 'Varia' is very energetic and seems like everyone has lots of fun there, so I guess that goes as a plus." Annette smirked and ate the last piece.

Lussuria nodded in agreement, "The Varia is a lively place~."

Then they left, the boy in the shop said that it was on the house...so no one payed anything. Sadly, the boy won't see the girl anymore.

.

Coming back to the mansion, Annette banged the doors wide open, revealing her new outfit.

"Ushishishi~, seems we got a new clown here~!" A kiddish voice was heard of no one else but the prince himself. The maid was about to get a gun and shoot the kid's brains out, "What did you say?" She asked in a very bass, for a girl, voice.

"Shishishi, you heard me. I'll want some snack in my room, in about a half-an-hour, bring it to me, maid." The prince turned around to walk to his room then.

"Oh, don't pay attention to Bel-chan, he just doesn't understand fashion~." Lussuria answered the broken look on the girl's face.

A minute later, the main door got banged on again, this time it was the Varia's boss and the vice-captain swordsman walking. They just walked by, without a word, and the expression on Xanxus's face was serious.

'I wonder what happened?' Annette asked herself, looking at the storming pair of teenage boys, coming (from what Squalo said before - it was a meeting of some sort) a meeting.

* * *

And thus is the end of this chapter.

So, here we get a softer (?) and more girlier side of Annette.

Did you like it? Or not? Please review, if you want to comment on anything, that's very welcome too~!


	9. Chapter 9

author's note: Hello everyone~! Yay, I'm back with a new chap...k, I'm sorry for taking so long to write this...at the moment, I'm experiencing school, looking for a part-time job- syndrome, and worst of all - an author block...I mean, although I have the whole chap in my head...somehow, it just doesn't come in words...so, yeah...let's hope it finally did.

Thank you all very much for the kind support =DDD. I'm very happy to know that my story (although has been long forgotten by the author) is still been read by you guys!

Well, let's skip the rest of the blabber and start this.

Disclaimer: as much as you know, I, sadly, only own my Oc in here. And yes, even the wonderful ideas are not mine. They are mostly made by the wonderful Narzik . deviantart . com (without the spaces) so credits to her!

Let the show...BEGIN!

* * *

Chapter 9:

_I know how to get my vendetta~  
_

The boys passed by Annette without even bothering to look at her. Well, on the positive side, the girl would've probably preferred not to be noticed, if she knew what was coming at her.

Though, sadly the offended teenager didn't seem to know that. _'How could they have not noticed ME and passed by ME?!'_ was all that was running through the black-haired girl's thoughts. She thought about it, as if it was the biggest offence she ever got (and probably is).

Whatever concern she had in the beginning for them (remember, in the last chapter she _actually_ was wondering what happened to them?) dissolved completely. Of course, that was also not the reason she was storming after them, up the gorgeous stairs.

"WAIT!" She demandingly shouted at them, finally coming to the top of the stairs. Both of the teenage assassins turned around, wondering _what the hell_ was trying to cross their path, when they are in such a horrifying mood.

Well, out of all the possibilities, they didn't cross the one with an overly bright yellow (did I mention before that it was glittery?) dressed maid, with puffy orange scarf around her back and hands.  
Somehow, Xanxus seemed to forget all of the rage that he had after the meeting. Instead, he was now concentrated on the girl, he happened to be so stupid as to hire as a maid.

_'Just what in the world of satan is she wearing?!'_ Was all that he was wondering now.

Ok, Xanxus might be an obsessed-with-power-and-mightiness kind of guy who doesn't care about anyone else. BUT, as a true Italian AND mafioso teenager, he cares about style. Well, despite his killing glare and deathly attitude, he does have good tastes, right?

Come on, you have to agree, he has reeeaaaallllyyy high-class needs.

Anyways, although he_ really_ didn't give a _damn_ about this mysterious Annette Claire, that just suddenly popped up from no where and into the lives of the Varia, he thought of her as the trash that knows how to_ dress-up_ at least.

Well, he is taking those thoughts back, she is just trash with tastes like... the supposed future sun guardian of his. _Oh god,_ he should've known that this was coming.

But what took him back a bit...like seriously tiny bit, was that obviously serious and offended face, "YOU!" She spoke, pointing her finger at no other than the scary Varia boss.

The said boss raised an eye-brow, wondering if he did something to in-please this girl (he would've been probably happy to find out what that is).

"How _dare_ you walk by me, AND not even_ look_ at me. _Especially_ when I'm so dressed up all gorgeous_ just_ for _you_?!" Well, if anything, this girl had a high level of self-confidence and honesty (in some respect).

Now both of the boys rose their eyebrows, in slight surprise. They had never had a girl say that to them before (well, yes, most of them didn't even stand in five metres radius from you without getting scared and wanting to run away.) Oh, and yes, if you haven't forgotten, Squalo was also there, wondering how much time she spend with the gay teen. Though, despite being bitterly played around with, the silverette seemed to have formed some neutral respect for the girl, since she somehow got most of the subordinates of the Varia to be at her side to do the job for her.

Anyways, that wasn't the point, he figured that the maid wasn't from any family, so she would've made a perfect ally for them. Although, he was still suspicious of her character and didn't dare to bring this up to Xanxus.

So, basically, after a long pause of awkward silence, where all three of them seemed to have thought of their own problems, Xanxus figured he had to reply somehow, and decided to be as honest as possible.

"Shut up, trash. You're annoying...And change from the clown costume." The Varia boss jerked his head away, and started walking again to where ever he was going before, Squalo following him right after.

Heartbroken and offended, Annette jerked head too and went in the opposite direction from the boys.

Although the girl didn't show it, she was actually quite glad that her original taste was still not as judged by normal guys. Well, that led to the end of her listening to flamboyant gays for advice on fashion. She still stood better on her own (of course, she looked good in anything, but some things looked better than the rest.)

Changing back to her black maids outfit, the girl remembered that the Varia's genius ordered her to bring some chips...or was it popcorn?

"Brat." She muttered, feeling like she's being used as a...maid.

Though, it didn't take long before she found a way to repay the spoiled prince. The black-haired teenager made a copy of the kid's grin, which looked weird and scary on her.

Coming into the kitchen, some men were cooking dinner or what not. "Oh, Annette~, how beautiful you're today too~." One of younger chefs said, adoring the maid.  
"Oh, please Prisco, who doesn't know that? I'm always beautiful." The said girl smirked, running a finger around the guy's chin.

"Yes, you are, honey." Prisco replied, wanting to grab her by the waist. But the girl, being herself, didn't let him, so, with a smirk, she just continued to walk.

Opening the cupboard doors, the girl takes out a pack of popcorn and puts it in the microwave for five minutes, on the highest temperature.

By the way, did I already mention that Annette is really horrible in the kitchen? Well, yes, yes she is.

After like five minutes, there was a horrible smell of burned popcorn. Then emotionelessly the maid took out the pack from the microwave and headed out of the kitchen, leaving the chefs to sweat-drop. They didn't think that the girl was_ that_ hopeless in 'cooking'. If you can even call that cooking.

Though they figured that it was intentionally made like that, because the said black-haired gave out a smile that could only mean huge trouble, "Well, gentlemen, I'm off to serve the young master." She said, waving at the, frozen from fear to what's going to happen, men.

Taking the burned smelled pack of popcorn, Annette left the large chicken.

Going through the corridor, the girl pushed fancy oak doors with her hips. The door led to none other than Prince the Ripper's room itself.

She then threw the pack that was in her hands on the king-sized bed that stood in the middle of the place, hardly seen, since the room was a total mess. Well, he was a spoiled, unhygienic eight-years-old, right? And his highness doesn't do things like clean-up. That's the servents jobs.

Though noticing something falling onto his messy bed, the prince moves to see what it is.

Looking from where he stood, there was a suspicious burned smell from...somewhere. Though he just couldn't detect from where it was coming, so he just automatically opened the pack of popcorn, without looking at it.

That's when his attention was grabbed by something black from the inside of the thing which he was holding. Charcoal. The thing that was suppose to be once popcorn turned seriously to black..charcoal.

"Maid! What in the world of sanity did you do to this popcorn?!" The pissed prince got out some of his knives and started throwing them at the older girl.

Noticing that the girl, was already five cm away from his face, Bel jumped back with a small panic and shock._ 'Just how did she just do that?!'_ He thought, getting defensive.

"Well, why don't you just do it yourself the next time kid?" She gave him a small poke on his hairy forehead and with a smirk, left the messy room.

"Kaching." The Varia's genius, finally broke the limits to his nerves and threw his knives with the strongest force he managed, making hole in the wooden doors, almost hitting the maid, who easily dodged them behind the doors. That was a close call.

_'Heh, that's what you get for looking down on me~.'_ Annette seemed pleased about the success of her plan.

"Now..how do I get back at _him_?" The girl thought really hard, but nothing seemed to come to her.

Well, not until she over-heard random men talking to each other.

"Hey, who are you going to root for?" random man n. 1 asked, curiosity in his voice. "The Jiggy Jags of course!" random man n.2 exclaimed. "You're right, their the best shooters out there. Well, after Nono's favourite hit man, Reborn of course." random man n.3 agreed with n.2.

Getting a bit too interested in what they were talking about (oh, by the way, she still doesn't know that Reborn is her master, so she didn't really care about that part), Annette walked into their conversation, surprising the Varia subordinates.

"Ciao, boys. Mind filling me on your conversation? It seemed very interesting." The girl didn't seem to bother to hide that she was eaves-dropping. Instead, she placed her left leg on the rather tall table, getting comfortable.

"This things are not exactly very interesting for girls actually...Well, I guess telling won't hurt." The tallest one of them said, taking something out of his pocket. Which awfully looked like crumbled paper. And you were right, it was a crumbled, to the point that it looked like trash, poster.

On it read, : "May the best one win! A shoot off competition, for the prize of 1 000 000 eur. The registration finishes a minute before the practice starts. Date - .XX. DON'T BE LATE, OR YOU'LL REGRET IT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE (Ps. - location, !"

_'Yes, sir~_' Annette smirked, finally also finding away to get back at her offender, a.k.a. Varia's boss, and admiring what it said about the prize.

"Now, who told you that girl's are not interested in this kind of things?" The girl gave a playful face, making the men blush from their own stupidity.

"Like I think this sounds very fun. You know..." The black-haired teenager now pulled the most innocent face you could possibly see on her, "..The boss seemed really in the bad mood lately. I believe he needs to relax a bit more ." She was brushing her hair now with her hands, slightly tilting her head, so she won't be fully looking into the men's eyes.

And although Annette was doing her best for them not to notice, but just one mention of the boss made them stiff.

"Umm...Annette, the boss isn't a person that would go to these kind of social events." The man n.1 said, still slightly shaken. "Yeah, he is more a 'lonely wolf'-type of guy." the others agreed.

"Now, now, don't go assuming stuff without seeing it for yourself, darlings. He just doesn't know how to relax." The girl calmly made it clear that she isn't going to give up on the idea any time soon.

"So, " She clapped her hands together, as if making a deal, "will you do me a favour?" the girl asked, blinking her eyes, making her long, naturally black eye-lashes move around.

"What would that be, love?" Man n.3 asked straight away, totally around the girl's finger already, since you could see hearts coming out of his eyes.

"Well, you did just say the boss is a lonely wolf, right? That means he won't go there himself." Then a very evil grin creped up her pretty face, making goose bumps creep up the men's spine "But. If we make him go there, he won't be able to resist the joy!"

"Now, don't you want to make your boss happy?!" The girl stood up from the excitement and rose her hands, as if giving a war-like speech.

The guys looked at each other, not sure what to do. Since of course, they don't want their heads to be blown away by the boss, they didn't want to participate. But saying 'no' to the girl was...heart-breaking. So, they were indecisive of what to do.

Annette rolled her eyes at this lameness, "If you help me, I'll give you all rewards." She then added. This time, not saying it in her usual playful way, but rather disappointed at the idiots, who couldn't even decide_ one_ thing. ONE thing!

Everyone agreed after that remark.

"Ok, meet me in front of Xanxus's room at...4 o'clock in the morning." All of the men nodded their heads in unison, letting the maid leave them in relieve and grin about how smart she is.

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3:53 A.M.- Varia mansion.

A girl dressed in dark, light clothes was silently walking through the unlit corridors. In her hands was a long, strong rope. What was it for? Let's see and find out.

3:55 A.M. - corridors

The same girl opens some grand doors professionally, without making even the slightest sound.

3:56 A.M. - inside the room

The mysterious figure walks carefully through, to the target, not touching the expensive furniture. And like a cat, she elegantly does her job.

3:58 A.M. - next to the target

Magically, a bottle of strong vodka appears out of nowhere. The mystery girl puts it on a small napkin, which also appeared magically. Then, taking the napkin, she carefully places it next to the target's nose and mouth.

3:59 A.M - the target

The target wants to make a loud noise, but the lack of oxygen makes it unconscious._ 'Success.'_ The mystery girl thought, putting everything away.

4:00 A.M - next to the doors of the room

"Glad you came on time, I wouldn't be able to lift the corpse." The girl said happily at the upcoming three strong-build figures. 'Sucker~.' The main mystery girl thought, before telling one of her companions to take one of the fancy chairs as well and closing the door behind them silently.

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8.00 A.M - unknown to us place yet.

"Just what the hell did I dream about...?" A rather low for a teenager voice asked, feeling like he has a hang-over or something.

A second after opening his eyes, he closed them again, not wanting to believe them any more.

Xanxus looked around again, finding out this - Xanxus, the scary Varia boss and the heir to Vongola (yes, he's going to become one no matter what) was in a middle of a carnival, sitting on a fancy chair, tightly tied up.

One thing crossed his mind for some reason when he took all of that information in... "That damn trashy maid!" He felt boiling inside, almost as if he was starting to become pure burning lava.

"Yes, master? Did you call?" A girly tone of a girl his age asked innocently, smiling like she knew absolutely nothing.

"You better start explaining, trash!" If you thought you already saw the boy's most intense glare...you were wrong, because this takes it aaaallll to another level.

"Your grumpiness probably comes from being hungry, what would you like to eat, sir?" The innocence was getting somehow really creepy too.

"Meat." He answered straight off, not caring any more for killing the brainless maid. "You're a carnivore to the fullest, _oui_? Don't worry, honey, meat's coming right up~!" The said brainless maid patted the hair of the...getting scary 'lion', as if oblivious to the dense atmosphere.

"What the _hell_ is going on?!" After a long silence, Xanxus finally asked coolly.

"Wait, honey. The fun's still not even started. You're going to be enjoying yourself soon enough." Annette answered the question, smirking, "Aren't I a good maid? I take care of my master's relaxation and mood. You should give me a bonus, you know?" she made a glint with her eyes, hoping the fifteen-year-old will understand what she meant by that. Though, Xanxus being...well, Xanxus, didn't even bother to understand, he just ignored her completely.

Having his pride on the line, he didn't want the people to think he was weak and that's why tied up. NO! He would first die before letting that happen. So, instead of just asking the girl to untie him, he used the flame of wrath (small portion) to let it burn and become ash.

"Anyways, where is this place, trash?" The guy asked, standing up at full length and trust me, when I say that he is tall. Because he is.

"Hohoho~, you thought I was going to tell you that easily, after going through all that trouble of getting you here?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

The male just stared at her, thinking that she might stop blabbering soon enough. "Not a chance." She just answered her own question.

Getting his rage back at her, Xanxus started flaming his right-hand with flame of wrath. But. Before he could even do anything, a pistol was already pointed at him, "Though I might change my mind, if you just happen to be so lucky as to win against me in a shooting competition." Her evil grin looked dark, mysterious and scary to the point of getting Xanxus to see the girl from a different point of view.

"Fine, trash." He agreed. And he wanted to look cool, by just walking off, but he had absolutely no idea where he was. Ok, he knew he was in the middle of some pathetic happy, clowny, trashy carnival, but WHERE he was, or WHERE he HAD to go, were two different things.

"So, who's the clown now?" Annette asked, walking by and swaying her hair to the side. She smirked, as she looked behind her, at the irritated figure of her boss.

On the other side, most of the people preferred not to even come 7 metres radius from the pair, since their professional scary auras were dangerous looking for all the normal people.

* * *

Yay! The chaps finished! I reeeaaaaalllyyyy hope you guys like it as much as I had fun writing this, cuz it was a whole lot. Especially the night scene XDDDDDDD.

Ok. PLEASE review. I wanna know what guys thought of this chap, so, please do that.


	10. Chapter 10

author's note: HELLO PEOPLE! GOD AM I GLAD TO BE WRITING AGAIN! I'm soooo sorry for the late update...But if you really want to blame someone, blame the school... =_= It was torturing me. like literally. BUT NOW I HAVE HOLIDAYS! BUAHAHAHAHA!

Annette: Yeah, the director went mad a bit and is right now rolling on the ground. So I, and my amazing self, will be taking over...cuz I'm that generous~. *swishes her hair back and gets in a more comfortable position*

*Director stand up and pushes the girl out* : just cuz you're the main character here doesn't mean you can take over my job.

Annette: Whatever. You're waisting the time of my greatness, so move it already.

Director: =_= I'm supposedly your creater...yeah, I guess I'm waisting our dear reader's time... *emo corner*

Annette: You're useless! Anyways, This idiot of a director doesn't own anything except for me. Oh, and because she is absolutely unoriginal, she gets help from Narzik . deviantart . com (Yeah, that's the only reason why I'm still not turning into a pure Mary Sue *Sigh*)

Director: HEY! I *sniff* I wouldn't make you Mary Sue even without Narzik's help! *Sniff**sniff* *Annette snickers* Gyahhh! Whatever! Let's get this started with!

* * *

Chapter 10:

_The shoot-off competition_

"Miss, m-may I have your names?" The man at the reception asked, fighting hard against his own urge to run away. I mean, who wouldn't, right? Wouldn't you want to run from a Varia boss's intense glare as if your life depended on it (literally, because he could shoot your head off in one blow with his bloody flame of wrath).

"You can call me Kitty, honey~" The oblivious to the atmosphere girl said, winking at the man in front of her. The guy just nodded, trying to hide his sweat.

_'Who was the oblivious, pretty girl next to Xanxus? Is she that stupid to be with_ him?_ Or just a good actress?'_ His head was starting to feel kind of high from the intense thinking,_ 'It can't be...No, it's **possible**. No matter how scary he is, the heir is still in his teenage years. It's not impossible for him to start getting interested in girl and get a..girlfriend...no, for some reason that just sounds wrong.' _

"Oh, and this scary piece of work is-" Annette was cut short by none other than the said guy himself, "-Xanxus." he answered in his sexy Italian (he didn't really care, because he spoke like that all of the time. Though his companion, being herself, seemed to label it in that category), starting to feel like he might as well go with the flow. _  
_

The receptionist gulped his saliva down his dry throat. Whatever was happening right now in front of him was not any of his business...though maybe he should still inform the Ninth...he might get a raise for such interesting information, right?

Alright, as you might've guessed already, this 'carnival' was one of those many festivals the Vongola and its allies would prepare for their hard-working subordinates and make them bond more. How convenient it would be for the Italian teenager to just make them give him a ride to the mansion, right?

Dispite that, there was one thing that was not falling into place for such a plan : Xanxus still had no idea about this. And there you go, thinking that he is such a smart guy who would know all about the crazy things his 'family' was enthusiastically making. Nope, sadly he is not one of those types. The Varia boss was more of - 'Do whatever you want as long as it doesn't disturb me' - type of guy.

While walking slowly into a closed up building, Annette was confidently humming the french 'Alouette' song's tune (director: yes, it's _supposedly _is a childish song...but it's about plucking a bird. I just think it's very appropriate for the occasion). Xanxus, on the other hand, seemed to be wondering just what's going to happen.

Considering one thing which was obvious - _he never in his life even held a gun._..The boy had to come up with a plan that would leave him in the victory anyway. Since, first of all, he would be able to go back to the mansion. And second of all, he would _never_ in his dear life lose to a girl (or actually anybody under Xanxus's 'trash' naming. Since, you know..they're trash)...**especially** that girl. Wait, that would probably be considered as the first and most important point. Oh well.

"This is where the practice will be, beauty." Xanxus came back to concentrating on what the trash was about to say. He knew that the random man, who was in front of them, wasn't talking to him, but Annette Claire (or as she called herself 'Kitty'). I mean, I don't think too many people would go around calling him a 'beauty', and he knows that.

_'Worthless piece of trash.'_ The boy thought in a monotone realization, analysing the man in front of him.

"Hmm~, is that so~?" Varia's maid asked innocently, looking around, "We~ll, will you point some spots for us to practice then?" Although the girl knew she had no reason to even warm up, she did figure that her 'boss' was an entirely different story.

"Of course, sugar." And a smirk crept up his thin lip-line, rubbing her cheek and chin with his rough fingers, "A girl like you should have the best spot~." "-The guy is with me." Annette replied sharply, somehow getting impatient already (she wanted her fun to start as fast as possible...but this man kept on trying to get something from her...and she wasn't in the 'mood').

It was a long time since the dark-haired girl felt her eyes wanting to burn with excitement over a mere competition, and she liked it. That's why the maid wasn't going to let some cheeky old man waist the time of her fun.

The 'cheeky old man's' eyes travelled from the pretty girl to the scary boy next to her. This definitely surprised him,_ 'Well, isn't this is a surprise? Senior Xanxus in person. Here. With a girl. Going to a shooting competition. The Vongola really does keep evolving its mysterious.'_

Nevertheless, the middle aged man just smiled at them and gave out the practising guns and showed them the free spots that were still free.

"I'll be rooting for you, young girl~!" He waved good-bye to them with a sparkly aura, _'I have a feeling this competition is going to become a bit more interesting this year._' He thought, while watching the teenagers' backs.

.

.

"Why the hell are we practising?" Xanxus noted, trying hard to avoid embarrassing himself.

"That attitude of yours is one reason. Don't worry, I can read men in seconds." Annette answered, getting slightly annoyed at needing to make that big lazy-bone of a teenager stand up from his glued to his butt chair, "What's so embarrassing about shooting a few kilometres off? Holding a gun is not that hard, you know?!"

Xanxus's vein on his forehead was aching to pop, "What's that suppose to mean, trash?!" His voice though still stayed low and calculating (yes, calculating just how high the pitch needs to go before his companion's nerves coming to the small risk of breaking into pieces.)

Right now, instead of a shooting competition, they had a staring..a.k.a. glaring contest.

"It means you're a lazy butt who is too 'prideful' to even move and learn something new!" Annette emphasised the word prideful with her fingers, "And who cares about this anyway? Can't you see that half of these people are even worse than bad? Or are you THAT clueless about all of this..." The rest of the stuff Xanxus couldn't bare to hear.

_'Does she **ever** shut up?!'_ was all that he was thinking right now. He hardly even put any meaning into things that she was saying, since it all rather sounded like a waste of time, bother AND nerves.

Finally deciding that his poor ears had enough, he figured that he should just get this over with. After all, he wasn't bothered to make a ruckus, since he knew that the girl had an upper hand over him.

"Ohh~, so you finally decided to stand up and practice, _oui_?' Varia's maid noticed, breaking whatever chain of thought she was spurring out a minute ago.

The spiky haired boy took his gun and went to the spot from where he was suppose to shoot. Well, it wasn't the first time he saw how to hold a gun really. Since he was rather peculiar on action and horror movies when he was a small boy (director: probably after the adoption).

Holding up the gun, or more like the rifle, with his elbows. Looking straight into the hole. Locking his target, he pulled the trigger and the bullet went flying...the different direction (well, it felt like that to a 'professional' like Annette anyway).

Annette was so shocked at this 'I wanna be awesome, but just made the most embarrassing thing ever' that she was pulled speechless...for now. A few minutes later, the girl couldn't help but start snickering, trying to hold in the laughter with whatever willpower that she had left.

Well, it didn't take long for it to turn into none-stop laughter, "BUahahahaHA! You HAD to see that look on your face! AHAHAHA!"

Though it took one glare from the crimson eyes to make her stop, "Alright, alright...I figured you're new to this...It..AHAHA-" "Shut up trash!" Xanxus commanded her, getting his arm ready to start firing his flame of wrath, making the rifle get a few burns.

Holding her stomach really tightly, the french girl started apologising, while laughing, "AHAHA! Ok, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. AHAHA!" The boy's forehead was about to pop open and screaming.

But before that could happen, the maid coughed several times, breathing in and out to stop. "Sorry, I wasn't going to...Anyway, that wasn't that bad of a shot actually." She gave a sympathetic look, trying to sound very serious, but the Varia's boss knew otherwise.

"Your position wasn't that bad. Your only problem was that you didn't concentrate until the very end. Try again, I'll show you the right way to do-" "That's enough, trash. I don't need a woman to teach me how to hold a weapon." Xanxus was going to show his true colors. After all, he wasn't a boss of the Varia for nothing, right?

"Uu~, talking big now, oui? Well, do whatever you want." Annette smirked , walking off to her own practice space,_ 'This revenge is going to be sweet~!' _

The rest of the practice was silent...well, in a way, really. Lots of guys noticed Annette's shooting skills, and she wasn't embarrassed to show it off (as you probably figured).

With swift movements and cat-like flexibility, the girl almost made it look like a show. Making her positions more and more difficult as time passed by.

Oh, and did I tell you that she was wearing, cut to the shorts size, black leggings and the long, purple top, making the 'shorts' looking even shorter than they were? Well, yes, she was, making the men pay even greater attention to her than if she wouldn't be.

What? She IS an attention-lover, right?

Several whistles were heard from the crowd as Annette raised her long, yet shapy, leg and made a high-kick pose. Xanxus didn't even bother look at her, since he was busy thinking of a way to kill the girl slowly and painfully, so that she would pay for the embarrassment that he had felt.

Behind all of the crowd, a pair of people walked from the spot, feeling like they were made fun of. ..._'No one messes with the Jiggy Jags!_' they thought darkly and left to get coffee. Because obvious that's what all the cool people get.

"So~, Xanxus, are you prepared to compete against me?" The girl asked in a mocking voice as more cheers for her were heard.

She was chuckling creepily until she turned her head...and as one would expect from the spoken to guy, he was just lazily shooting bullets without a care in the world for what the girl said.

This made her tick and a bit of a cloudy aura was starting to form around her, but it wasn't thick enough to make her new developed fans scared. _'So we're gonna be playing cool until the end, oui?'_ she thought, putting down her gun and walking away to get some refreshments.

Some of the guys told her that they can bring her whatever she wants, and if the circumstances would've been normal, she would've made them to bring her also the best chocolate cakes and a cup of hot cocoa for a drink. (Well, you might say that she is has an obsession over chocolate). The only problem...she didn't feel like it for some reason, so the girl declined their offer by just walking through and ignoring them.

_'Jesus, he is so stubborn that I'm not even going to care. After this competition I'm going to get enough money to forget whatever that freaky baby stole from me._' She thought, trying to think of a way which she is going to take from the Varia mansion.

Walking into the small cafeteria the girl was so into her own thoughts that she didn't see that she bumped into someone. "Hey! Girly, what the do you think you're doing?!" that guy she happened to bump into said. Annette was about to just ignore him too, but before she could just turn away, the guy grabbed her hand making her delicate skin get a bruise, "Where d' ya think yar goin', girly? Apologise right now!" he demanded, twisting her hand.

"_Q-quoi*_?" Annette asked, trying to hold the pain.

"French, eh?" He grinned as if he had a wicked plan of some sort, "Aincha a hottie, it's a shame that I'll have to make you feel embarrassment when we win this tournament. I'll wait for your apology until then." After stating that, he let go of her hand and turned to walk on.

The Varia's maid's face turned serious and emotionless, "Heck I'll ever apologise to the likes of you and I'm not losing to _anyone_." her tone turned almost manly, before she flipped her hair and turned away to eat a chocolate cake in frustration.

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.

"Now let's have the competitors move to the official tournament's spot~!" A voice was heard from the speakers. Everyone started moving, so our Varia members did too. Both of them were silent and serious, that Xanxus started wondering if something happened. Since you know, she was always so annoyingly loud._ 'If only she could like this all of the time...'_ he thought, finding it much easier to tolerate.

When they came to the big arena-like place the names of all the contestants were put out on a big paper.

Annette saw something suspicious there - there were two names for every team. And when she found what she was looking for, the girl thought that there was a mistake made, "Umm...you! What's going on? Why is my name written with his?" She asked one of the 'guards' that stood there.

"Well, isn't it suppose to be?" The guy asked, wondering what the problem was here. Varia's maid was about to make a hole through his brain,_ 'Why me?!'_ she thought, pitting herself for all the bad things that happened to her.

"I wouldn't be asking if it was suppose to be like that." Annette said through her teeth. "Ouch, tough luck... The organisers can do things like that if they feel like that. And you can't change their mind anyhow...oh well, you'll just have to go with whatever you've got, I guess." He answered in pity. "HUH?! What's tha sup-" And before the black-haired girl could finish her complain, someone pulled her by the back of her shirt..hard.

"Auu. Wha-" "Be quiet woman." Xanxus replied, staring at her with his crimson eyes, making the girl remember the first day they met. The teenager gulped, _'So he really is pissed too, huh?'_

"Ahaha~, real tough luck, eh?" someone said, bumping into her on purpose. Seeing the same back from before, Annette's eyes started burning lively with revenge, "We're going to win this Xanxus, and set our score later!" she told him, taking his hand and leading the way.

This didn't sit too well with the Varia's boss, but he wasn't going to bother, since he'll be able to sleep through the thing.

.

.

And just as the both of them predicted, Annette ended up shooting through the tournament, getting the best scores. Since that was what the competition was about. It was about who could shoot straightest, and as the more people kept on falling out, the more difficult they were making the targets.

The ex-student of the best hitman in the world though had no troubles. Which was why Xanxus got himself a comfortable chair and a good cold glass of tequilla...Ok, maybe he commanded some low rank trash to do it for him (and even if he didn't know who they were, they did who _he_ was), but that's not important here, right?

After a few hours, there were only two groups left: Jiggy Jags and...well, the Varia duo (nobody called them that though) of course.

"So it's us against you, girly?" The guy said in a mocking voice, "I'm happy to see that you had enough luck to make it here~." The woman next to him added. She wore very tomboy-like clothing, but wore a smug look anyway.

"Heh, at least I have a sense of style." Annette smirked, putting her hand on her lips and giving an air-kiss.

"This girl is annoying. I bet she forced some men to shoot straight for her from behind the scene." The opponent stated, brushing her short hair away from her forehead with her hand and turning.

A shot was heard right a millimetre away from her ear, in the next millisecond, "Oops, didn't want to miss there honey~. Oh well, I'll make sure to hit your heart next~." Our heroine smiled sweetly, reloading her gun.

"W-wha?!" Both of the Jiggy Jags' duo freaked out. They were good shooters, but fighters...not so much.

And before anything could get any more complex, a whistle was heard and a couple of guards came running in and grabbing the girl by her arms and started dragging her out.

"_Quoi_?!" Annette squealed, "What's going on?! Why are you dragging me? And where?!" she started nervously asking questions, as if she really was in trouble. Well, it's not an 'if' it was a 'fact' actually.

"Raising a weapon against a fellow contestant is prohibited, so you're disqualified from the competition. Completely." The guard on her right answered in monotone, making the poor girl drop her jaw.

"No way..." Annette started panicking. It was really ironic how before she met up with the Varia, the girl would never be caught..and now it was almost on daily occasions.

Before they could pull her completely out of sight and away from the games, the Varia's maid had enough sense to shout out, "Xanxus! You better win thiiiisssss!" And the door closed behind them.

The Varia's boss opened his eyes, as he heard the shouting_, 'Heh, you don't have to tell me, woman._' he thought, looking in the direction of the opponent..s.

"That couldn't possibly be..." The man from the Jiggy Jags commented, letting his partner finish, "Yes, that definitely is the Ninth's son, Xanxus. Just what in the world?"

Though the guy started chuckling evilly, "I saw him practice..I have no idea how he got here, but in the practice, he was a total loser. Our winning is guaranteed now!"

Little did he know that Xanxus had really sharp ears and that he heard that, _'Trash, I'm gonna make you pay!_' he thought, boiling up his temper (which was really short and easy to snap).

For the finale, the organisers decided to make it interesting, by putting a few moving metal objects before the target. There were five different ones, and they all moved in different times.

The woman from the opponents' team started, her bullet went flying through the first four metals, buuttt...sadly for her, the fifth one came out randomly and stopped the bullet. Oh well. Move it on.

Since it was the finals, they were allowed two tries, but after their opponent gets his first.

Xanxus remembered something from before, _"You should concentrate to the very end."_ Annette's voice ringed in his head. His forehead nerves were yet again about to burst, but then another thing came out from his memory,_ "In the practice, he was a total loser...loser...loser...loser..."_ Xanxus's hands were burning up with the flame of wrath.

The audience stopped whatever chatter they had before and also probably stopped breathing, but no one noticed, since they were all struck with fear,_ 'He is going to kill us and blow the place up!_' was a thought that sprang in all of their heads. I wonder why?

But before they could run all out of their seats and out of there, they saw that instead of the guns melting down because of the intensive heat, they started glowing a shiny orange colour.

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.

.

Annette was taken out of the competition, but the people weren't evil enough to not let her see it through (or they were cruel to make her see her 'partner' fail? you decide on that ^^).

The girl sighed, feeling like the Varia were really having a bad influence on her. _'How could I let myself be caught?!_' she started getting angry at herself..something that was new to her too and it wasn't a nice feeling at all.

Pinching her cheek, the maid thought of just concentrating on watching the finals.

When she saw that the woman missed, Annette started laughing hard, "Buahaha! That's what you get for making me in trouble!" Life felt finally in place for her.

But now the moment that she was waiting for came...Xanxus's turn.

_'Please! Please! Please! Don't miss!_' She started praying with all of her heart, _'For me...no, for your own god sakes pride! I don't care, just **hit!**!'_

And as if God was hearing her, a miracle was happening and the gun that the guy was holding were glowing with orange shiny colour and smoke was coming out of it. The next second was like a breathless moment as a the Varia's boss stretched his hand with the weapon in it, said in his low voice, "_**Die, trash**_." and pulled the trigger to make a huge explosion in the targets direction.

There was a whole lot of smoke everywhere, making everyone still, as if they became statues (the woman from the Jiggy Jags fainted by now actually. Though the guy wasn't doing very well either).

And as the smoke was starting to clear, the whole population of the arena (plus Annette) started looking nervously to see what happened.

Well...what could be seen was Xanxus in a relaxed pose, with one hand in his pants' pocket and the other looking at the gun in curiosity. His face showed little interest in the rest.  
And behind him was a whole wall that was blown to dusty charcoal, together with the target of course.

The french self-loving teen felt her heartbeat raising drastically. "WE WON!" she squealed in the highest tune possible. Afterwards a bunch of jumping around, the girl decided to run through the guards that were suppose to be looking after her.

Annette jumped through the seats down the arena (as she was taken to the very top), "Move it!" she told the people that she pushed with her legs.

"And the winner of the 20th annual of the shoot-off competition is...NONE OTHER THAN OUR DEAR VONGOLA NINTH'S SON, XANXUS!" One of the organisers shouted, coming out in a fancy fashion!

He was standing on a round platform that was automatically rotating. The guy happened to wear a totally white suit with a purple under-shirt and a big hat, his hands were filled with a huge sign that looked like a big version of a check.

The Varia boss reacted on that straight away,_ 'Damn the old man, if I knew earlier I wouldn't have needed to bother for the trash!'_ he was getting a bit irritated at his own stupidity for not knowing it earlier.

"DARLING~ come to mamma~!" Annette squealed yet again, jumping into the spot light... The organiser sweat-dropped, _'What did she just say?'_

"Girl, what are yo-" "I'm his partner silly, did you forget already?" The girl interrupted him, giving off a silly face, "Now, if you please..." she added, holding out her hand for the check, but before he could give it to her, a hand came from behind, "I won it." The black-haired guy replied Annette's stuttered face, giving her also a smug expression. He took the check, put it over his own shoulder and then started walking off.

The girl's right eye started to twitch...pretty badly, _'How dare that ** of a **?!'_ she thought, thinking that fire would start spilling out from her.

And as if a storm passed by, she ran after Xanxus.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU WON IT?! I CAN'T BELIEVE JUST BECAUSE YOU GOT THE LAST SHOT ALL OF THE CREDITS WENT TO _YOU_!" Annette started pulling out her frustration, "AND anyway, why do you need more money?! You got plenty, ain't that right?!..." That was as far as Xanxus could bear to hear it, "That's what you get for trying to challenge me, trash. And as a punishment for this, you better get me steak, or else I'll blow your head off." He said, making the poor girl remember that she was stuck being a maid in the Varia...again.

* * *

Poor Annette... XD D She'll be stuck serving the Varia for a while now~. Though I think Xanxus just shortened his life spam by asking Annette to get him..**food. **Oh, well.

So~. What did you think of this chapter? I'm sorry for the weirdness in the beginning...but I AM super happy to finally not be needing to study like crazy and ACTUALLY enjoy life.

Oh, and for people that aren't too familiar with french, 'Quoi?' is 'What?' in french...just a little extra. I think it's better for Annette to still use her mother tongue once in a while. Oh, by the way, they all talk in Italian if anybody wondered about that.

Ok, now I've got something important to ask you - _**Does anyone know how to get a beta-reader?** _

Because I more or less know how to become one...but how the system works...not so much. If anyone is kind enough, please answer me. If you want, you can PM me about it. ^ ^ Thank you.

Please review, k? You know, I might upload a bit faster if you do, because I see that people are interested and stuff. Otherwise it becomes sort of awkward to write...I dunno, maybe it's just me.


	11. Chapter 11

author's note: Hello people~! Yay...I got sick.. Oh well. I still can write, so it doesn't matter. This chap is going to have a special...extra to it. No, it will be a link, so don't expect to read here XD.

Anyway, I don't want to waste yar time, lets get back to Annette's loveliness~.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything except for my OC and the ideas for the plot come mostly from dear Narzik . deviantart . com

Let the show begin~.

* * *

Chapter 11:

_The mission _

_'Let that selfish brat burn in hell!_' Annette was literally bursting out aura that send Varia's lower subordinates away and out of her sight. Little did they know that their instincts were correct for once in their lives.

_'I win the damn thing and HE gets ALL of the credit?!'_ The girl kept on stomping until she reached big, carved, wooden doors of the HQ, _'THE DAMN GUY ONLY DID ONE SHOT!'_

Bursting the said doors open, the teenager's eyes started watering, _'Il n'est pas juste!'*_ She kept on repeating to herself since they came back to the mansion.

The room which these doors were leading to happened to be the kitchen. Her tight clouds around herself made even the chefs retreat from their stations. Unlike the rest of the Varia's subordinates, they knew pain very well...It wasn't uncommon to them to get their butts kicked by the higher ranks for making the food 'not their taste'. And obviously one sight of bad mood in the kitchen made their brains shout 'run' with nothing in between.

So, before Annette could tell, she was alone in a kitchen. The girl blinked her eyes in confusion, "Where is everyone?" she asked, wondering where they all ran out to, "I was going to tell them to make a steak for their damn boss..." Realizing that they weren't going to come any time soon, she figured that she'll have to come up with something else for the hungry 'beast' (as our heroine so kindly put it), before he kills her alive for keeping him hungry for so long.

Opening the expensive fridge, the girl looked through it to find a nicely cut piece of red...tuna (but she couldn't tell the difference, both raw meat and tuna flesh are red, right?)

'Well, I guess I could always poison him with a few special 'spices' as a way of revenge~.' Suddenly her mood lightened by several percent and a smirk rose up on her rosy lips.

Starting off with taking out a pan, Annette tried to remember how to make steaks again. 'The stupid master first...heat up the pan with butter, right?' Some memories of her evenings with Reborn came up, but she didn't mind them, since it kind of helped her. And those memories were probably the only once that didn't have the devil torturing her, a.k.a improving her skills.

Feeling a bit too engrossed in her work, the girl was seriously doing this with all of her skills: putting the tuna and the spices. Then taking out a pretty plate and placing the fish on it with a spoon of some sort.

Our heroine's eyes were shining with delight. To her, the meal looked perfect, so with confidence she left to the boss, stars surrounding her now.

"_Salut_, boss~." Annette came into the room where Xanxus was sitting comfortable, listening to Squalo talking about some sort of strategy which the girl had no interest in.

All of the Varia's guardians turned to her in small surprise. Seeing that all of the attention was on her, the girl continued, "Brought your order." The smirk that promised misery was on her.

Xanxus looked at the girl with a bored eye and then on the tray in front of her, "Like hell I'm going to eat that." he simply answered, looking at that half-raw from the top and half-burned from the bottom piece of...fish

" 'Course you will." Annette commented, giving off a very innocent smile. Coming closer, she moved the tray with her and sitting herself down on the grand chair's (where Xanxus was sitting) handle . After wards she picked up the plate with fork and knife and started cutting the 'steak' into smaller pieces.

"Here, darling, open up your mouth like a good boy you are~." The obvious sarcasm in her innocent words made the rest of the teenagers in the room sort of drop their jaws...completely

"I said," Xanxus wasn't the one to let people insult him so easily, "Like hell I'm going to eat that, woman." The boy was about to burn his hands with flames and burn her to ashes...before he felt something push through his lips and into his mouth...It was disgusting.

Spitting out whatever that thing was, "Oh my. Darling, are you alright?" Annette asked flapping her long eye-lashes in confusion and worry, jumping up from her sitting position, as to not get herself dirty.

The boy, who was on the verge of throwing up, was going to roar and everyone in the room knew that...including the girl. So, wanting to spare her life, the black-haired french beauty decided to calm down their boss.

"Oh, come on, Xanxus, look at it this way, you give me the money and I'll be out of your life for good~." Wait, was this going to calm him down?

Now everyone was standing and staring at the couple in the middle, but although the atmosphere seemed tense, it didn't feel like a fight was about to begin.

And after several long minutes of Xanxus staring at the maid in front of him wondering what kind of torture would be best, he finally spoke, "Shark trash, explain." Whatever that was suppose to mean, Annette hoped it would lead to her getting her money.

"Tch, stupid boss, are you really going to trust her on this?!" The white-haired second-in-command asked, wondering what happened to their boss for trusting a girl who was about to poison him with...was that burned-raw fish?

Xanxus wasn't listening any more, since he was walking to a small table in the corner of the room to get some tequilla to burn that taste on his tongue.

Really confused on what's going on, Annette asked innocently, trying not to show any sign of slight worry, "What're you talking about?" Though something about the words 'trust her on this' made her curiosity rise up in passion.

"Oh, there is just a small mission where it would be so much easier for a girl to do." Lussuria replied, making a duck face, "I wanted to do it myself, but the rest of the group don't seem to believe that I fit the category~." His voice turned to a rather disappointed tone.

"Vooiii! Lussuria, don't say things which aren't necessary!" Squalo was shouting, pointing his swordy hand at the flamboyant teenager, "And you're not a girl, no matter how gay you are!"

"Help of a girl? Myy~, are you implying that you wanted to ask if I could be that girl?" Annette asked like she was a slow dumb kid. "No, we want an elephant to run down a hill." Varia's blond prince replied with sarcasm in his voice, also meaning to make a rude remark.

"Ahaha~, myy~, that's sweet of you. But as the white hottie said, can you really trust me?" The girl asked, not caring for Bel too much (although she'll probably teach that kid a lesson one day), "And plus, how can you even consider putting such a fragile girl into a dangerous mission that only professionals, such as yourselves, can succeed." The trying to act like a purified angel didn't work too well, since a rough, dry cough was heard from the corner of the room. Xanxus couldn't help but try not to break into a fit of laughter.

"Fragile my foot, how did I wake up in the circus then? The trash won't step a foot into my bedroom." The Varia's boss was trying hard not to snort, not even once did he think of this 'Anette Claire' as a 'fragile girl'. They just don't go into one sentence. It hurt his pride to admit what he just said, but the girl amused him to the point that he didn't care any more. Annoying, loud, disgusting attitude, never shuts up and a horrible cook...these were the words he would probably describe her with, so, 'fragile' is not even close.

The first time in the whole day the Varia's maid...had nothing to say. In other words, she was speechless.

"Xanxus, was that a praise?" She asked, with full intentions of being straight forward. Her eyes sparkling with delight again.

"Get over your head, maid. There is no way in hell the boss would have praised a trash like you." A voice, owned by a tall figure, from behind her, said, annoyed in a way.

Turning around, Annette would have screamed from the tall boy's figure right next to her appearing so suddenly. But holding her ground she just started to breath heavily, "Don't scare people like that!" the girl complained, shouting at Levi.

"The payment is high, since this is about the son of a rather well known man." Mammon talked in his usual monotone, understanding that his and the girl's interests weren't that far from each other. And the rest of the Varia didn't really seem to know how negotiate other people to do things they want (unless you consider force as 'negotiating').

"Heh, you'll have more than what boss got from your trip." Squalo butted in, finally deciding that Annette was really their best chance at this and understanding where Mammon was going with this. Actually, everyone in the Varia was very interested to know what just happened earlier that day, but since Xanxus didn't even want to mention it, the subject was cut-short. They only found out as much as the new money in the bank and Xanxus disappearing in the very early morning.

As if a needle of bright light shot their maid, she stood frozen and speechless for a moment. Then the girl stood up straight and walked towards the Varia's shark, "Now, honey, you were talking about a rich man's son, right?" She pocked the white-haired boy's nose lightly and made a cute face, "I think I'll need more_ information_ than that." Annette made a strong french-accent on the word information.

_'Well that was easy.'_ was the thought that crossed everyone's mind.

.

.

Squalo lead the way and gave her all the possible information that they got (The one which he felt was necessary. The reason for this job he kept a secret).

In a way, he was happy that he finally got to see what she was capable of doing, since he had a huge gut feeling that she had way more than the girl showed. That feeling grew after their trashy boss and the maid came back. One reason for that was...she was still alive and actually came back, without shaking as if a bear just attacked her, with _that_ guy.

Annette, on the other hand, felt like she was set up. She never did anything like this mission which they gave her. Assassination, sure. It wasn't like she cared for other human's life, especially if she gets money out of it. Spying - been there, done that. Stealing, that was her middle name practically and basically her 'profession'.

Putting something BACK into someone else's place...just what kind of a lame person does that? -The Varia. Or at least that what Annette Claire thought. _'This is the lamest mission I EVER did...even with the stupid master.'_

Disappointed at the lack of excitement in this, the maid just decided to get this done and over with. The money is the thing she was after. Excitement the girl knew how to find herself.

Going with Lussuria to the shop, Annette found herself a suitable dark costume that fit her perfectly. It basically was just a black, leather over-all, just for the job. A few black shoes to go with it. Whatever her companion was suggesting was overheard and not even looked at.

After being given the item, the girl was allowed to finish this mission any ways she preferred...Well, almost.

"You better not fail this mission, I'll slice you up myself if you do." Squalo said strictly, daring for her to stand up against his almighty. It almost felt like he for once had the upper hand. Well, he _thought_. Sadly, Annette is just a great load too much for him to have an upper hand on.

She lifted one end of her rosy lips, as if the threat didn't mean a thing to her, "Now, honey, you shouldn't say something you don't mean." Her glittering black eyes, were filled with that self-confidence which Varia's shark hated and yet respected her for. And then, in a second the light changed and a sudden chill passed down him, "You better be worrying for yourself, since I'm not going to be very happy if the money won't ready by the time I come back." The sadistic face changed straight after, not leaving a trace of a wrinkle on her face Though little by little Squalo was finding himself stuttered even more than the last time about her.

_'Just who in the world is this Annette Claire?'_ He was still angry at himself for not finding out about it earlier, or at least make those 'baggage of lazy kids' do it for him (a.k.a. - the Varia).

"Well, I'll be off." She said, turning around, the girl made her hair flip and bounce a few times before it relaxed on the very height of her back, "Au revoir~." The sweet tune somehow made the guy there wake up from his thoughts. It was too late though, she already managed to jump down the window and into the dark night.

_'Ah...I'll have to postpone that for later.'_ And with a single look in his eyes, which he gave his hidden companions, they followed her. After all, what kind of gentlemen would they be if they let a lady go through the dark by herself?

On her side of the story, Annette started to easily climb through trees with silence and ease. Her eyes got rid of emotions and only determination was what kept her going.

The mansion which she had to go to was about 5 kilometres away, so it really was a boring jumping waste of time. What in the world made her agree to this, she didn't know. But looking at it in an other way, it might be fun.

"Now...where is that _chateau_?" The girl asked herself quietly, looking for it, since it was suppose to be close.

"Ah, there it is." She answered herself when she saw a brick-tower standing out from the tree bushes. Moving closer and closer to it, she noticed more and more guards, _'Well, this young man is pretty pre-cautious. I'll give him credit for that._' Finally she managed to somehow slip through the guard, not even breaking a sweat, 'Though sadly this Varia managed to hire a professional like me to do the job.'

The 'chateau', where she was, was pretty much of the same size as Varia's HQ. With it's Italian architecture and fine out-line of female statues standing right next to the main gate, Annette understood the guy's interests and characters straight away. She knew way too many rich young men who had the same tastes. Men from who she stole money in millions.

A bit of happiness hugged her heart, _'It might be one of the boys' which I encountered before~.'_After wards, it seemed like she forgot completely that she was on a mission.

But the happiness didn't embrace her for too long, since the sting of him hating her would still be there. 'Life is so much more annoying when you care for morals...' Annette thought in depress. That's why she never cared for them. And did whatever was on her mind.

And now she felt like finishing this 'mission' and getting money from the Varia. Probably this was the first time in three years she got money 'officially'. Sad, isn't it? Well, not to her.

_'There. Just as sharkie had told me to~._' The girl thought pleased with herself, as she put the small package inside the small cupboard next to the master's bed.

_'Now only to get out of here unnoti-'_ The door to the master's opened and walked in a yawning young man with a cute face. Annette froze in a small panic. With a small gulp, she figured that there was no way she could escape from there through the window or any other way, since the bed was in the middle of the room. Hiding under the bed itself was no option. So that idea was out.

Looking through everything in her head, the only option which was left for her to-.

She undid her hair from the pony tail and let the thick, a bit curly hair fall on her shoulders gently. Then she unbuttoned the first few buttons of her overall, letting her tanned top chest gleam. Sitting down on one of the sides of the bed with her legs crossed, she looked gayly at the guy who came in.

"Who is here?" The guy finally stopped yawning, looking stunt at the sudden movements around. A chuckle was heard, "Why, it's me Leone." Annette just picked a random Italian male name that she knew, but who cares. Confidence always drove them to forget what she called them.

"Is that...Anne..is that really you?" The answered cleared out that he really was one of the guys she happened to have fun with. Dear was this luck!

"_Oui_, it is, honey." She said sweetly, trying to at least remember who he was. "Oh, my sweetheart. Did you come back to break my weak heart again? Or am I dreaming?" He spoke again of things Annette didn't recall. Of course, she knew that she made fun of men's hearts by breaking them into pieces. But there was at least a hundred on top of each other. How could she remember and go through all of them?

"I-I swear, I didn't mean to." Annette started an acting hysteria, "I don't know what came over me! But I'm here. You're not dreaming. Let me embrace those broken pieces of heart which I broke. I-I'm sure I'll be able to fix them somehow..." The tears that were forming on her were not fully fake. Consciousness was starting to bug her.

'If not for that damn man, I wouldn't have started to feel pleasure in seeing man broke (director: Annette, admit it, you just like stealing from other people.)!' Fury started to burn up inside her, as she ran up to this stranger to her, reassuring that she really cared.

It wasn't long after she buried her face into his chest that the girl felt a presence behind her, the girl also figured the reason for that presence. _'So one of the boy's started grow some guts, eh?'_ She wanted to laugh, but instead, she let the figure hit her unconscious, _'Let's see what happens_.'

.

.

As if another deja vu, Annette found herself sitting on a chair, hand in hand-cuffs and legs tide up. 'Boys never get more imaginative, do they?' She thought sighing silently, wondering if the Varia took a mission done when she is captured. It's finished and done with, right? She just kind of got into trouble with one her 'exs' and let somebody hit her unconscious, not a big deal. Let's hope they have the money ready.

* * *

Oookkk. I'm going to stop it here. Since the continuation of this will rather...I dunno.

A bit of translation for people that don't speak french:

Il n'est pas juste! = It is unfair!

Salut.= sort of like a 'hi' or a 'hey'

chateau = a mansion.

(I use only words I know, so it's obvious why they're not complicated ^ ^ ' )

I hope you like this chapter. If you have anything to say about something, say ahead. **Oh, and here is the special link to the extra~. Though warning, there might be a slight 8~10 years later spoiler XDDD. Here it is - - narzik . deviantart . gallery / # / d5izgpy  
**

Well, anyways, please review~


	12. Chapter 12

author's note: Hello everyone~! Long time no see ^^. This chap is just a continuation of the last chapter.

Hope you enjoy~ the chapter.

disclaimer: I don't own KHR, except for my OC and half of the plot. The one helping me to write this is no other than Narzik. deviantart . com.

And let the show...continue~.

* * *

_Chapter 12: _

_A part of the mafia  
_

_As if another deja vu, Annette found herself sitting on a chair, behind the chair, hands in hand-cuffs and legs tide up. 'Boys never get more imaginative, do they?' She thought sighing silently, wondering if the Varia took a mission done when she is captured. It's finished and done with, right? She just kind of got into trouble with one her 'exs' and let somebody hit her unconscious, not a big deal. Let's hope they have the money ready.  
_

Opening her heavy, long eye-lashes, the girl moved her head slowly to a more comfortable position.

"So you're finally awake?" An amused voice asked. Remembering the voice, Annette smirked, looking at the leaning figure that stood a few metres away from her.

"You were waiting long, Leone?" She answered with the same lightness in her speech. Of course, she was confident that everything was under control. I mean, is she or is she not a professional thief?

"That's not my name." The guy commented plainly, trying not to show that it stung not to be remembered. The girl stared blankly back_. 'So it wasn't?'_ she thought rather disappointed that her guess was not correct. Well, her guesses were as lucky as any other gambling game. The chance of winning was out of thousands, but it mattered little to her, so she just thought of entertaining to her own satisfaction. Since it's a gamble, your blood gets sudden adrenaline from the win lose situation, right?

But then, without making much of a face, she just replied, "Oh, I was just teasing you~, Julius~." Another wild guess was made. Though she admitted that there really was a guy named Julius in her life some...time ago. Who knows, maybe it was this one.

"It's Andrei." The guy spit it out, not having the patients for her guesses, which he was pretty sure were really random.

"Oh, right. That was it. I totally knew that~." She gave this teasing sort of look. But deeply disappointed in her companion's patience. If anything, you'd probably be to see that she wanted to play for a bit more. But then, another idea struck her, "You're that russian-"

"I'm german." Now Andrei was finally understanding how happy his life had become after she left. Before, he thought that she was just a kid (14-ish?), so he never pushed the subject of her memory, since her pretty face saved her. And that's how a happy two days relationship lasted. Though now, he figured that there really wasn't much else than a face to begin with. Oh...how wrong you are, darling Andrei...

"Oh, really? You just were always so handsome that I thought...oh, never mind." Annette said. It never occurred to her that that phrase could actually hurt people. Well, not that she would actually cares, even if she knew. To her, the young-adult in a suit was in need of punishment. Why? - because this is her logic we're talking about.

"I don't care for your compliments." The guy replied sharply (never mind the last statement, this guy thought she complimented him...), hoping to get out of the subject and get somewhere, where he will have the upper hand.

So, taking a deep breath, he composed back into a blackmailer's attitude. This time, the girl noticed it too and was rather confused, maybe even looking forward to what's going to happen next. Not that she was doing that from the start.

"Anyway, that's not the point." Andrei took a more comfortable position, since he was leaning on a desk. Taking something out from behind him, he showed it to our heroine who just put on another blank look. That wasn't very expected. Actually, Annette put such a blank look, that it was hard to tell what was going on in her head. No, it was rather obvious that she was holding, with every bit of self-restrain that was in her power, the chaos that was going in her head.

"By the looks of it, you really were the one who put it in, weren't you kitty?" The older one smirked sadistically at her. But Annette wasn't even bothered by the supposed threat. She was fighting with her inner-self more. _'NON! Now those idiots won't give me the money!_' She was wanting to let out all of the curses that were on her tongue from frustration, but kept herself in. It won't help anyhow if she would loose her temper at him._ 'I-I'll just have to think of something else! Orrrr...maybe I can deceive them...what about this german? Maybe I can pull some wool over his eyes...maybe. Though it will cost me. What? There is noth...Oh, please. No, never mind. If he's rich, than he should've learned how to a gentleman...something I see rather rarely now a days-"_

Her thoughts were cut off with the continuation of Andrei's speech (which was probably thought of very clearly).

"You know, I never thought you, of all people, would start working for a group as crazy as the Varia...I'm not even sure what went through your head when you agreed to be with them..." The guy kept shaking his head from right to left in misinterpretation. Then he put the package down.

"Could it be that you're interested in crazy kids like them?" Annette knew exactly where he was going with those questions, but continued to just sit there. She put on a small smile, when Andrei didn't pay attention. The teenager was wondering how stupid he was for thinking that that was even possible. It sure was clear that it's for the money. What other reasons would there be. And anyway, it's not like she is working for them...

But oh, well. This is more fun to listen to.

"Well, I'm quite sure that you're not into gays. So that freaky homosexual is out." He started listing them. Somehow, the girl felt a small pain in her pride, "Are you saying I'm not broad-minded?!" she exclaimed wondering just how this guy was so racist. Not that it mattered that she could be much ruder.

But, after such a blunt out-burst, the 'blackmailer' stood in shock for a bit, but then let out a laugh so hard, that it led to him getting a stomach ache.

"Aha~, I never thought that you would say that..." Andrei mumbled, trying to calm down. Whatever cool pose he had in the beginning was gone now. So the mid-height guy just sat on the white-coloured desk, which fit the image of the room too well.

Annette, for the first time seriously looked around the room, finding it very spacious and modern. The very lack of things made it seem more clean than it was. Sure there was a beige colored sofa and a glass table there and a few other room-furnitures and accessories that made it seem complete, but it lacked that 'men's club' theme to it. The girl was really wondering how such a modern office can be made in such a antique (or maybe even older by a century) 'chateau'. But not caring about it, she just turned her head back to the companion who seemed to finally relax.

_'Just what was so funny?'_ She wondered in deep confusion, raising her dark, elegant eye-brow.

Oh, of course, in the mean time, Annette figured that she had to free up from the hand-cuffs. This time, unfortunately for her, the thing that was keeping her hands tied up happened to be even more difficult to break than the Varia's one. Not that she showed it.

So seeing our heroine's 'are-you-serious?' face, he stopped laughing completely, "No, I'm not saying that. It's just the relationship won't be very great if he isn't even into your sex. But that's besides the point." He finally continued, giving a last grin of his humorous satisfaction, "Next, is that blond brat. I'm sure, from experience, you're not into little brats (that counts the baby too, I suppose). So, please, don't even think about it. The tall loser is rather out of question since you hate obsessed workers. Plus to that, he's a loser. That leaves us only with a loud swordsman and an angry 24/7 boss. Though again, the Varia's sharky is obsessed with work too.,so that's also a very minimum potential."

If one would look from the side, they would probably think the guy was choosing a lover for his companion. It seemed like he was very interested in the stuff himself. Nothing strange about that...right?

"That leaves us with a winner, Xanxus, the boss of the Varia." He gave this congratulations wave with his arm, as if small fireworks were suppose to start behind him and a pink background appear from no where.  
But then Andrei made a very regretful face, "Though I pity you and your darling little heart. He's a tough potato. As much as I've heard, the guy's interested in only getting his rightful throne on becoming the boss of the Vongola." The guy dropped his head in disappointment.

The first opinion on this german millionaire is that he is very serious, since he wears the official suit the whole day long and blah blah blah. But I guess, seriousness has a limit in everybody.

Annette was just blankly staring again. To her, the guy was talking something uncomprehending. _'Xanxus being hard to get? Yeah, right. And what's that Vongola-thing he talks about?_' she wondered until curiosity took the best of her.

"What's Vongola?" the french girl really had no idea. If anything, she figured it was a name of some italian company which weren't exactly popular for her to hear, but rich enough to buy a mansion.

Italians like using 'boss' instead of director or manager. At least, that's as much as Annette knew from self-experience. Every time she wanted to steal from a rich guy - he just happens to be a 'boss' or an 'heir' or god knows what else (there was also the bank that she stole from, but those really were when she was completely broke). Now that she thought about it, it did hit a mystery point to her brain.

"You're kidding me. You're working for the Varia and you don't know?!" Andrei exclaimed, not believing his ears. _'Somebody actually doesn't know about THE Vongola?!'_ He was about to drop his jaw before deciding to keep it up.

Feeling offended, the teenager gave a disgusted face, "I don't care for anybody's else's business except for my own." The sensible thing that she said was really, supposed to be translated as: 'as long as the talk is not about me, who gives a damn?'.

Andrei knew that and sighed...deeply, _'Typical._' he only thought, wanting to face-palm himself,_ 'Why didn't I think of that earlier?'_ Rolling his eyes, the guy continued with an extra explanation that he figured he should do before trying to blackmail her any how.

"Do you know even what was the purpose of your little 'mission'?" He started off with the most basic question he could think of. He had to know where to start from, right?

"Sure, put the thing back into your closet and get out." The girl answered non-challengingly. Somehow, Andrei expected that answer and didn't even bother sighing. No, it actually was more perfect for him this way._ Against his revenge on the Vongola and the Varia in the mean while._

"And let me guess, you were told to do it for a sum of money, right?" He just added, making the most obvious puzzle come together in his head. Annette gave a slight chuckle at his slowness, but let him continue.

"Well, dear, this little package is my father's precious belonging." He showed the little thing to her again, "And since they don't like him, the Varia stole it from us to start a ruckus and tension between out families. But that's pretty much the basics of our mafia world. There is no morality in it...it's sad, but true." His talking went so smoothly, that it felt like he really was a gentleman at heart.

To Annette, only one word came as a shock - "mafia". _'Mafia...as in THE underworld black-market world?!'_ her black pupils became smaller, before returning back to their original size.

Her master had taught her quite a lot about the black-market and its illegal business. She never asked how he knew about them and listened to his advice carefully. He added also that her life would be much happier away from them and to this day she believed it completely. It was harder to deceive thieves, so it would take more work. But funnily enough she was communicating with them without knowing.

"Oh, come on, dear, don't give me such a face. You shouldn't be so surprised that they're thieves and liars. I know that you don't care." The guy, who was in his early twenties, stood up from the table and walked to Annette. Leaning towards her, Andrei gently passed his right hand through the girl's neckline, like it was an amusing, beautiful sculpture. It didn't take too long for him to be really close, almost pressing against her cheek.

"I know everything about you. Your shallow past of a street brat and how you suddenly disappeared for 8 years to god knows where. Although those years are a mystery, your being came back as the best thief europe...maybe even the world had ever known." He said, listing her past, like he knew it by hard, "You're interesting no matter how times I read the report we made on you..." The happiness in his twinkled, as if hope was starting to rise in his soul.

Then, with a sudden whisper, not letting the girl get a full grasp of what he said, the guy added with a very low, seductive male tone, "Leave them before he can hurt you. Do it like you always do. And come back to me. I have more money than them. Give me yourself, your pretty, foxy face and everything with it..." The girl stiffened from the sudden words. Not that she hasn't heard them before. But, it was the first time, she felt that someone was intruding into her privacy. Actually, she would probably enjoy such a proposal, only if her hands were free and she would be able to jump away any time. But such comfort was not in her reach. Thus, she sat there frozen, almost as if he, the first person alive, cornered her from all sides.

There were too many things that were flowing into her head now and he just added to this. But after a while, the guy stood up straight and laughed like there was no tomorrow...again.

Annette wondered if he was on drugs or something. Laughing like it's the end of the world always...it's not normal. Well, it could've been the case, since the mafia get those with ease. But I doubt it was now.

"AHAHAHA~, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!" He laughed explosively, his hands moved, as if stretching , "ANNE, THE GIRL WHO SEDUCES ANY MAN TO THE POINT THAT THEY CAN'T HOLD THEMSELVES, STILL HAS NEVER..." He couldn't help but burst into another fit. The girl already figured what he was going to say afterwards. That's why her usual pretty face was now as hateful looking as that of a devil. The aura of smoke that was covering her now wasn't any better. It was so dark and gloomy that it fit the Halloween theme very well. Yes, that's just how intense her stare was.

Andrei saw that too, but still finished his sentence in complete mockery. It was fun to be the one to be the bully after all. "..done it?!" Annette felt her cheeks burn up. No one ever had thought of that before. Since she always acted like such a pro in love. It was the first time her cover blew. '_Damn him_', she thought bitterly.

But instead, she just straightened up and, with a sense of pride, told him in the face, "So? I'm not some cheap girl, you know?" And just when she finally got herself together from the sudden talk about the mafia and the...eight, 'mysterious' years, she sensed five different presences outside the room, watching her and the loser (in her opinion from now on).

A smirk left her, "Seems like I have to finish off what I started, Alex~." This time, she said the wrong name on purpose, making the guy frown. Why was she smirking? He was the one supposed to be in the advantage, right?!

Moving her hands from behind the chair to the front, Andrei figured why it was.

She freed herself from the hand-cuffs and was now ready to move. Though before she fully stood up, she lost balance and fell on the chair again.  
Her legs were still tied up by some highly new technological device.

"HA! You'll never be able to free yourself from that and thus you'll have to stay here!" He exclaimed, becoming nervous somehow. But he only got another smirk as a reply._ 'Why?! Why isn't she even...?!' _ he kept cursing in his head at her. Unfortunately he never got the chance to say them out loud.

Never. Never underestimate a Varia's maid. You might dig your own grave. Sadly, Andrei already did.

Annette did a quick cartwheel and managed to hit with her tide up feet, the handsome face of the german guy.

Of course, that didn't really bring him down, but he did get a bloody bruise from the girl's sharp soles of her shoes, making him curse under his breath more. The guy took out a pistol afterwards and aimed it at her, but missed (or maybe she moved), giving Annette enough time to slap it out of his hand and into her own.

Finally standing there, with her beloved weapon, the french girl gave a sweet smile towards him, "Bye, Alejandro. Sadly, the Varia gave me this mission before you could try to turn everything around. The earlier bird gets the worm, isn't that right?" And then, aiming at his heart, she cocked the gun.

"Oh, and your girlfriend is very mad at you." Annette added with an ironic sympathy. From the beginning the girl knew that there was a short woman standing somewhere in the corner of the room. She guessed that it was that girl who hit her unconscious, but that wasn't in her interest at the moment. And then, with a chuckle that somehow sounded very sour, the french beauty said, "You really messed up your life, _oui_? Well, I'll help you die~. This will only take a second."

Andrei's full body was shaking so bad that his knees gave in,_ 'NO! I can't die yet! But the again..'._ The girl didn't even think another second before shooting, leaving him in the midst of a sentence in his thoughts.

_'Oh well...can't bring him back life I guess..'_ she thought (regretfully?).

Standing for a while, the girl finally burst into a fit of annoyance. "How long are you going to stand there?!" She didn't shout at anyone in particular, but 'they' already knew that she was talking to them.

Puffing her cheeks at the window and door, Annette wished she could figure how to free her legs. It was irritating her. And she couldn't even take a normal step without falling. Well, she would look like a penguin and that's exactly what she tried to avoid.

"Oh~, darling~, that was amazing~." The gay tone came out of the window. Our heroine just turned around happily. Lussuria just somehow had always a sunny aura to himself, making Annette forget her problems and think like a teenager with a huge ego.

"Lussuria, don't say that...I can't believe you all made me go through this...Oh, the horror." Fake tears were starting to come down her tanned cheeks. The over-dramatized act was ignored completely.

Everyone came out, most looking bored and not interested in whatever happened.

Nevertheless, Squalo saw what he wanted and chose to believe that she is not to be trusted. Well, at least he felt a bit more relieved that he won't need to press the matter to Xanxus.

"Ushishishi~. And without any mercy too." The eight-years-old prince poked the dead body, "You're really merciless, thief." Annette raised an eyebrow. Then, getting the urge to kick the kid for his rude remark, she started walking...and falling face first.

"Uwwahh! Get these of me!" Annette kicked and punched the floor, not caring if she looked like a spoiled child herself.

"Heh. That's a first timer." Levi's tall figure came closer to her, "You're the worst thief I know..not even able to open up these.." he muttered in disappointment. This one remark caused Annette to get the gun in her hands cocked again and ready to shoot. The tall teen gulped a bit, _'Was she really going to shoot him?'_ the rest of the group wondered, sort of hoping for the best.

But they were disappointed when the bullet flew towards her feet.

If one couldn't open the lock, you force it open, right? That was the logic Annette was using at the moment and...it worked, luckily.

"Did you say something?" She faced Levi, searching for a surprised expression on his face. Which she got, though not exactly for what she wanted to, but still.

Standing up straight, the girl turned to Squalo, and gave him a suspicious look, "Is the money ready?" the only reason why she endured everything was for that reason, and for that mission alone (ok, it didn't exactly go as planned...but still).

The sharky looked at her for a moment, analysing her face expression. He did it unconsciously, but it drew him in. That strong look that described her lust for money. Yes, it was a look that he won't forget. Just like the first time he saw Xanxus and the face that was so full of rage that it left Squalo in bewilderedness.

Xanxus and Annette were complete opposites and yet similar in that respect.

Squalo stopped. Blinked. And then looked again,_ 'Just what the hell went through my head?!'_ No, he really didn't know. Shaking it off, the shark just answered shortly, "You failed your mission. That means no money."

Annette thought she just didn't hear right. 'Failed the mission?!' she furiously stared at Squalo, not showing even one hint of an emotion. Though her eyes could be seen to spark soon enough with flame.

"Ushishishi~ the boss wasn't going to give to you in the first place. But now its even with a reason~." The happy prince grinned. But Squalo, glared at him as if he was about to yell for his stupidity. Lussuria sweat-dropped. He didn't mind the boy's mean comments on normal standards...but now, even he thought it was too much.

Well, the black-haired girl was the first to comment on that through her teeth, "Bloody mafiosos." that sharp and dry remark was enough to see that she was pissed to highest level possible.

"I'm going to play with you later, brat." Annette gave a smirk that promised misery. And with that, she jumped off from the window going to her next target - Xanxus. She left the Varia in-charge of cleaning up her mess, making Squalo yell at the end of his voice, "VOOOOIIII!" and they also jumped right after her, leaving the bloody scene unclean.

Mammon, the only one who kept quiet through the whole time, was thinking about something completely off-topic. '_She acts as spoiled as that arrogant Reborn. Just how...'_ And with that thought in mind, the baby's eyes widened out of shock at his own thought under the hood, _'It can't be... can it?'_

* * *

Yes, Yes, Yes... I know this chapter is a bit more dark (?). But I do hope you still liked it. Since I did put quite a lot of effort to write this.

Any comments would be appreciated. Look forward to the next chap~.


	13. Chapter 13

author's note: Hello everyone! YAY! Holiday getting nearer and nearer! Happy early X-mas to all my lovely, darling readers! =D Actually I was thinking of writing a small x-mas special either here or on DA, but I'm guessing I'll have to post the link to it later ^^' if I don't write it here. Oh well... But this chap is going to continue the last chaps Fallout.._Fallout! I'm awake and trying, while you're sleeping like a baby sides him~ (Yes...I just randomly burst into a Marianas Trench's song Fallout...have been listening to him for too long... = _ = )  
_

Well, hope you enjoy~~! And bless thou tests to be finally over~! TT^TT (I'm crying from happiness)_  
_

disclaimer: I don't own KHR, and Narzik ( narzik . deviantart . com ) helps me to create some of the plot so credits to her too~. Annette is mine though...completely * V *

Let the show beg-... continue~~

* * *

_chapter 13: _

_A meeting with darling daddy_

Annette reached the Varia's HQ with fire ready to spark from her emotionless eyes. The killing aura was seriously...killing (Surprising, right?)

It took her one high-kick to break the glass. Though the kick started from the mid-point of her jump from the tree. Making the energy and force grow by a fracture of two. That's probably the more scientific way of putting it in. The other option would be that it was the devilish aura that was growing around her, which made the kick stronger. Take your pick.

The point was or is... or will be that she got the window broken and got in without a need of doing a detour through the main-door to the Boss's relaxation room.

"So you finished your mission?" Xanxus asked, as if he knew she would come like that to 'his' room. Luckily enough he wasn't looking at her, or else his smirk would have probably turned into evil laughter...which would be rather awkward in that serious situation.

To him, it was a perfect way of finally getting a piece of his own revenge against the french maid, who dragged him somewhere he didn't want to go.

So, to sum it all up: both of them seemed to be fully mutual on hatred towards each other.

"Of course..." The girl remarked with a low tone, moving towards the companion. When she was on touchable distance with him, she took the chair's handle, dragging it with all the strength she had to make all of it turn her way, "..Xanxus." Annette tried her best not to spit on him, for all that negative feelings that she possessed against him.

"You seemed to have enjoyed it too." He said mockingly, starting to enjoy very much the girl's reaction. And the fact that she was pointing a gun at his head while locking their eye contact as if there was a lock to begin with, was not ruining it any how.

"Where. is. my. money, bossss?" No, she wasn't exactly pointing out her tongue like a lizard but it was very close while pronouncing the 's'.

"A maid is to work in the household and have a regular salary without any extras to come." The almost smily boss of the Varia answered, obviously knowing that it was his win. "Read the rules before doing unnecessary dirty work." Yes, this definitely felt like a employer's and an employee's sort of conversation although the difference between there age was a few month, making her the older one actually. And Annette didn't like that situation at all.

Feeling offended in ridiculous amounts, Annette looked as if she was about to breath fire...literally. Her face made this dragon-like expression, before her anger burst out, "WHO IN THE WORLD READS THE FREAKING RULES?! YOU'RE JUST USING AN EXCUSES TO KEEP ME HERE! ADMIT IT! IF YOU'RE A GOD DAMN MAFIA BOSS, YOU PROBABLY ALREADY KNOW THAT I'M PENNILESS!"

And before she could shut her own mouth, it spit out unnecessary information. But she was way too caught up in her enjoyment of pushing the teenage boy back and forth with the help of his collar, to notice. It was after a few minutes that she realized that and went into some sort of a panic mode which would probably not be known to us, normal humans, sadly.

Stepping a bit back, the girl felt like running away at that moment. Lets say all of her furry went and left fear as a substitute.

Well, the fear actually grew from the fact that Xanxus's face was standing right in front of her. Yes, the Varia boss got angry.

It's a very pitiful situation when someone like Xanxus gets mad at you...since, you probably would scratch the glory of death if you are lucky. But Annette was on a total new level of madness on his list. And he was angry at himself too, since he let her go to that level.

"Shut up, trash." Annette realised that the boss also reached a new level of bass in his voice.

Gulping, the girl tried to get some courage back into her bones, since they started trembling badly.

"_Die_."

She really thought those were the last words she would hear before her short, pitiful life would end. After that, there was this flame that went straight at her. Then everything went white and then black.

.

.

Opening her eyes, the girl didn't realise fully where she was.

_'Did I really die?'_ she thought, slightly light-headed. But then little by little she started feeling her muscles_. 'I guess not.._'

There was a slight burning pain on her chest, as if fire just went through it and grilled her alive. Standing up to a sitting position, the girl looked down to see a huge amount of band-aid on there. "Just what happened...?" Annette whispered to no one in particular. For the rest of her body, she was wearing shorts...and that was it. Of course, there was the soft cover, but that doesn't count.

It didn't freak the girl out, but she did wonder, _'Just how did I get into them?'_

Then her eyes travelled from her body to the bed. It was a big king-sized bed with a silky linen of the creamy colour. The room was well lit-up with sun rays coming from the windows, so you could see everything clearly.

The place was big. Not like her own room which she had in the Varia HQ.

If Annette should've guessed, she would have said that it was morning. And the room looked awfully familiar.

"Where am I..?" she asked again, a bit louder this time. She started to gather her mind back together and in to one.

Just now she realized that the wound, which came from somewhere, wasn't all that little. In fact, it was a pain in the neck to just sit and it hardened her breathing. So she just decided to lie down on the comfortable bed again.

Somehow everything seemed so perfectly familiar, and yet she couldn't remember where she was.

There was sound coming from the door of the room, which made Annette stand up in alert. Although it hurt like hell, she wasn't really ready to die another time. Not for real anyway.

But even if anything, there was no gun next to her and her body was too hurt to even consider fighting back. Though still, being alert is better than nothing. And she sat there, in pain, until the door opened and she saw a familiar face.

"Lussuria." She said in a whisper, feeling her muscles relaxing.

"Oh! Dear! You're finally awake!" The gay guy exclaimed in happiness, as if he was really worried before. "Yeah...it seems like it." the girl replied, still feeling the lack of energy.

Annette felt awkward at the same time. It was the first time someone became so happy from just her waking up. Or it was actually her first time meeting someone with such a gay personality - happy and care-free.

"What happened actually..?" The french beauty asked, somehow trying not to show that she was flattered by his sweet emotions.

"Oh~. Well...the boss kind of threw one of his oh-so-famous flames of wrath at you...which gave you the injury on your chest. You fell unconscious then. You really gave me a scare there, I really thought you went of to the next world!" Lussuria skipped to the bed and sat down next to Annette.  
He took her by the arms and gave this puppy-dog look.

"I stopped the boss and then took you to my room...where you've been sleeping for a week now. Jeez, the boss can be so ungentleman-like some times!" The eldest of the psycho group stated, making a gesture like he was about to become angry.

"I've been unconscious for a week? And what the hell is the flame..whatever thing." Annette asked, interrupting the guy's talking. Lussuria looked at her, and then with a bright smile answered, "For seven days and 5 hours to be more precise. And it's the flame of wrath. Something the boss was pretty much born with. It's also one of the biggest reasons why he can make anyone feel scared. Not many survive that, you know? It's incredible how you only fell unconscious after receiving it so directly."

Annette stared a bit at Lussuria, who's eyes, behind the sun glasses, were sparkling with delightful surprise. It took her a while to comprehend what he said.

_'So...Xanxus was born with a super special ability to make his hands burn up when he's angry...and not many survive it...so it's real._' That's how her mind was working for a few moments. Then, her last thought was,_ 'Thanks god I survived through the stupid master's training...I might have died now if he didn't make me go through hell that time. I mean, I still was unconscious for a week...'_

And then, not really knowing how or why, but her cheeks turned a slight color of pink. And although her skin was tanned so it wasn't as easy to detect, but it didn't go unnoticed.

_'Strong..'_ she looked away from her companion to the her hands to her chest. Somehow she forgot the fact that she hated Xanxus. No, Annette felt almost like her personality that she created through out the years drowned completely from her and she was seeing the world from a stranger's eyes.

But it took only one sound from the gay guy to get her back to her own self. "Is there something bothering you dear? Do tell your sister, alright~?"

"You're a man." Annette stated, sadly not able to handle his girlishness to that extend. "Uwaahhh~, Anne-chan! You're acting like Squ-chan-" "Alright..alright...just don't go into your crying state and _don't_ compare me with the white-haired...boy." Funnily enough, the girl only couldn't handle Lussuria's crying. Yeah...she's pretty bad with gay guys. And well, she also couldn't stand to be compared...at any cost.

The girl could swear that she heard a grumble in her stomach then. "You're hungry, right? I'll bring breakfast. Is there something you prefer for breakfa-" "Hot chocolate with cream and chocolate cake. Ask the men in the kitchen, they know how I like it." She answered immediately without a second thought.

Lussuria stood there, dumb-founded, "Oh..so you.." he started, but Annette again interrupted him, "What? You thought I would drink wine in the mornings? Excuse_ moi~ _for your disappointment, but I'm no drunkered , you know?"

And with that, the finished conversation was continued with am awkward silence, where Lussuria felt like he should go.

Just the next second after the teenager left our heroine fell back because she couldn't hold the pain anymore. '_Darn you Xanxus!'_ Now she thought, when the pain was making itself known, _'How could you burn my beautiful skin like that!'_ And before long, a short memory came back to her, _'Just like master...'_

_It was about when she was walking happily, with the money Reborn gave her, to the store to bye some ingredients he asked her to get. Then she came back, with pretty much all of them back...with a small exception of his coffee beans. "Where are my beans?" Reborn asked, not happy with what she forgot. "...Forgotten..?" Annette said unsurely, backing up a bit back with a forcefully pulled up grin. "How..dare..you?!" The young man took out a shotgun from one of the cupboards in the kitchen. It was then the girl knew she had to run for her life...literally.  
The whole thing ended with the small child getting a shot in the shoulder, scratches that were all around her body and a very clear idea of never forgetting Master's coffee beans. And well, Reborn replied to this all with just a,"It was all an act to make you stronger." Though Annette heard something completely different from that. Well, she actually couldn't really see the difference between when the man was acting or telling the truth, but our young heroine knew in her heart that the Master just loves his coffee. _

"Are you Annette Claire?" A rather old-sounding man's voice came from behind the door and coming in. Before long, two men were standing in front of the door.

The girl stood up carefully, fully on alert again. This time, she was sure that she never saw either of them before. Although one looked much younger than the other, she made a conclusion that even the younger one was around his forties.

"It's unpleasant if the knowledge is so one-sided, you know? Can I know who you gentlemen are?" Annette tried to crack up a jock, but since both of them looked like they didn't get it, the french girl just let it go._ 'Boring losers._' She thought grumpily,_'Where is Lussuria with my breakfast?'_

"You don't need to know that, sugar." The younger one replied though, "By the way, sweet talk won't work on us. We had our deal of fun when we were younger, so-" "Ganauhe! Stop talking." the other one turned and began to speak with Annette, We're here to take you to our boss. He has a serious matter to discuss with you." The older one harshly interrupted Ganauche, who looked at him with these, *Are you serious ?*look. Both of the companions in the room understood the look.

So, Annette took a front in this conversation, "Well, it's a pretty sweet name. You know, I like chocolate~. Can I know yours too, granpa?" The fact that she tried to flirt with one and called the other a 'granpa' was not a surprise. In fact. both of them were very used to it.

"Hmm~, well, why don't you tell her, Nougat?" Ganauche asked, before he closed his mouth to make it look like it was a mistake, "Oops. My mistake, I already said it~." If it wasn't for the fact that Nougat had to finish his mission as fast as he was able to, he would've probably not really let the younger man live very long.

"Back to the subject at hand. We're taking you to the boss, like it or not. The rest of the group here already know. Oh..and you'll get breakfast too. So Lussuria of the Varia won't be coming." The guy said, with a tone that didn't leave any place for other words, "Let's go." And that was already a full command.

But before either of the men could reach the room, Annette coughed to get attention. "_D'accord_, but I can't walk even if I wanted to. You probably can see this here...Yeah, it's an injury. I usually don't really have a hobby of falling asleep in band-aid around my breasts." the girl swished her hair and tried to suck up the pain, but it didn't work too well.  
And so, her plan to look cool didn't work either.

Ganauche caught her before she dropped on the bed again. "You did this on purpose, didn't you, girly?" He asked, somehow getting irritated by the fact that he now has to carry her.

"You sure had your share when you were younger...The only problem with that..you never had someone like me~." Annette smirked, now able to control her breathing a bit more as she is lifted. The girl then gave a peck on the guy's wanna-be beard.

If it wasn't the fact that there was no other way to get the girl out of the room, the younger man tried not to show his vein on the forehead popping.

Nougat just sighed while going behind them closing the door. 'Our information was sadly very correct. This is going to be troublesome..' And with that the two men left with Annette being carried in a princess style by the unfortunate man.

.

.

"Wake up, girly." Ganauche poked the girl right in the middle of her wound.

There was a second of silence, before the french beauty went ahead and grabbed his fist with the finger and pulled him all the way to be on the other side of the limo, her emotionless eyes almost looked like those of a wild cat, ready to jump on its pray. And that's basically what happened. It was only after another minute the girl came to her senses and realized that she had no gun.

"Heh. You definitely got the Varia psycho way of living." The man replied to her actions, still in somewhat surprised state, holding himself guarded.

"Seems like your wound is better." The eldest in the group stated, "We're here. So you'll walk the rest of the way." And another command.

"As you say. Though you're no gentleman...commanding a poor, injured girl like that. In France, such words would be considered shameful!" Annette commented, only knowing telling half-truth. "Well, first, we're not in France. And trust me, girl, Italians know how to treat a woman much better than french..." Gaunache looked towards the speaker with a smirk, knowing what the other one meant. But Nougat just coughed out, "Anyway...we're in the mafia and we bend rules to our own will. Plus, you're just a plain killer and a thief. Those are crimes that aren't easily forgiven. Don't think you're going for a cup of tea with our boss."

Annette looked at him, while crossing her legs and getting comfortable on her side of the limo, "Hmm..I think I've got enough punishment from Xanxus,_ non?_ Well, you boring fools are doing your job, so it can't be helped..I'll go with the flow."

That remark, made the men reach out for their weapons, but they controlled their temper and left it at that.

And in a bit more they all stepped out of the limo in front of mansion which was like double the size of Varia's. Annette's eyes started to sparkle at the prettiness. She already made plans to move around the beauty to see if there was anything she could take for her own.

Though one thought kind of frightened her..her body was still frightened of Xanxus, so she didn't want to meet him (or anyone like him) around.

Nevertheless, her fear was crushed, since when the two men opened the grand door, she saw a prettily decorated table with all sorts of sweets on top of it. And then from a corner, there came a voice, "So you finally have arrived, eh?"

When the man turned, Annette saw an old man, in his 6os probably with a colorful blouse and a smile placed on his face. Actually, he also had a hat on his head and a few gardening equipments in his hands.

"Just who the..?" The girl pronounced silently, having her jaw dropped.

"My apologize, Nono. The road was being troublesome, that's why we came late." The older man next to her said, bowing almost 90 degrees. This shocked the girl even more, "Wha..?!"

"Do you want us to take our leave, Nono?" The younger man asked, turning himself a bit to the door.

"Oh no, there is no need to apologize, Coyote. But I wouldn't mind if you two did go." The supposed 'boss' answered both of his subordinates statements.

When both of them left, Annette felt a bit empty-handed..What was she going to do with this acting as a nice man person? She wanted know, but didn't at the same time. A dilemma started to appear in her head.

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to do anything to you..I like doing things more peacefully." The weird men answered her unasked question. "How did you..?" She whispered barely hearable, but he answered anyway.

"I've got a pretty strong sixth sense I guess you could call it. It sort of comes from my bloodline." Nono said, before pointing at her chest, "Like I get the feeling that I know who burned you there. I'm not cheating, since I already knew before I was told." Annette started to get even more creaped out by his talk. To her, it sounded like he was insane.

It wasn't until he said a few more words that she changed her mind.

"It was my son, right? Xanxus?" The man said, giving a very sad face.

"Son...?" The girl questioned, before realizing what it actually meant, "YOUR XANXUS'S FATHER?"

* * *

So? How did you like it? Was it boring? Exciting? Are the two guardians too OOC? Tell me if anyone too OOC, I'll try to be more careful in the future than.

Coyote Nougat and Ganauche III are Nono's storm and thunder guardians...just to make sure, so no one gets overly confused. More explanations will come in the next chapter...hopefully.

I know a lot of you were excited about Mammon finding out about her and Reborn...which isn't exactly true. It was just a hunch. No real solid knowledge. I'll make sure to have more happening soon~.

Well, hope you liked it.

Reviews are really welcome~. And I want to thank everyone who did in the last chapter, you don't know how much it means to me!


	14. Chapter 14

author's note: Hello everyone~! So we're finally into the new year! I hope everyone already made their new year resolutions, no? Well, mine is to get into high school and finnish my stories successfully~!

disclaimer: I don't own KHR, except for my OC and the plot is half mine, half Narzik's: you can find her on narzik . deviantart . com

I hope you enjoy this chapter ^^

* * *

_Chapter 14: _

_Breakfast with The Vongola Family's__ ninth__ boss  
_

"YOU'RE XANXUS'S FATHER?!" Annette pronounced the second time, still wide eyed and shocked.

"Indeed." The old man calmly smiled at the hilarious face the other was giving. He peacefully sat down on a chair next to him, as if it didn't surprise him anyhow that the young girl reacted like that.

Seeing the companion's reaction the shocked girl tried to explain her bewilderment on her own statement. "Well, I mean..." she tried hard, "You know.." Though nothing came out .

Taking a deep breath, Annette figured that she had to change her tactics in front of the old boss if he was the one putting judgement on her. It's not like Nougat's words passed her by without a second thought. Noo~, she wasn't one of those air-heads to skip that kind of information.

Innocence usually worked in these kind of situations

"I just..well, you see, a sweet darling gentleman, like yourself, couldn't possibly raise a child to be as hateful and bitter as-" She coughed, realising the use of words were wrong, " I mean, wild, of course...as Xanxus, right?" The girl smiled, hopefully the other one didn't grasp any of her bad intentions of getting out from the situation.

The old boss just sat and watched in amusement how Annette tried to explain herself, "It's quite all right, Annette. I know well what you are trying to say." That painful expression with regret passed his old eyes. The girl found his action suspicious but didn't press on it. And even if she did have want to press on it, the man changed their subject before that could happen.

"Why don't you sit down and have some breakfast." The sweet darling of a man asked her, hearing another grumble coming from her stomach, "I heard you eat sweets for breakfast so we had this prepared for you. Eat up as much as you want and don't worry about them being poisonous. I told you that I like doing things in a more peaceful manner, right?" Somehow that smile of his didn't cut it for Annette.

Being widely open with varieties of men that she went out in the rich category, the girl knew quite a lot of different characters. So it wasn't rare for her to see phonies that acted all sweet that actually had horrible intentions.  
But she was hungry as hell, that's why she didn't want to hold back to an offering like that.

"Yovva swetish mehn I knoh!" The girl said while stuffing more choco pudding into her own mouth and pouring more milk to herself.

"Glad to be of service." The old man laughed light-heartedly, "You're quite an actress. I don't believe anyone who saw you would be able to imagine that you had such an appetite!" The exclamation made Annette drop her head a bit and flush a light baby-pink.

It wasn't in her intentions to eat like a pig, but her body was acting on its own. I mean, imagine how you would be like after waking up from a week of sleep? Quite hungry I'm guessing.

Stopping, the girl sat up straight, lightly brushing away any dirt next to her lips with a napkin. "_Je m'excuse_, my body acted on its own...you see...I don't actually eat like this normally..." Annette tried to clarify her behaviour, "Stupid master made sure of that..." the last part was said in a bitter whisper as a small thing between the lines.

"No, it's quite alright," the man in his 60s replied, not wanting to hear more if it, "I don't think it's bad for children to eat when they're hungry. Please enjoy yourself." His behaviour made Annette even more suspicious, so she just relaxed her shoulders a bit and sat comfortably in the chair.

"You know, I hate it when men call me a brat." The girl added out of no where, "I try to avoid it really. It usually means that they look down on me and make it sound like I'm unworthy of their precious time.." But then she loosened up her face too and gave a sweet smile back to the old man, "Of course, I know you mean only well for a girl like me. You care for kids, don't you?" Standing up, Annette stretched herself and walked lightly to the window, "You would probably spoil any brat that comes your way."

The boss looked at her, a bit confused on her actions.  
He was wondering just what in the world was going on.

And he didn't have to wait long to get the answer. "The sight here really is so peaceful...It's nice to be rich probably, right?" she asked, looking through the huge garden's windows that were behind the plants.

The old man laughed again, "You, out of all people, most likely don't even believe that sentence yourself, right? Peaceful doesn't seem to be your style, my child." his laugh twinkled around Annette, giving her a very hard time concentrating.

"Why do you say that? Just because I don't act it, doesn't mean I don't want it." The girl turned her head towards her companion, moving her eyelashes up and down for the innocent effect.

The guy really didn't want to stop laughing. To him, her acting was a childish play and he felt bad for enjoying it. Unlike _his son_, this girl was naively believing that everyone bends under her gentle little finger. Xanxus on the other hand makes them bend by force if words do not cut it. That was the difference between them and Nono knew quite well that it was because of cruel fate that Annette didn't get a normal life as a teenager, so he really couldn't make himself to even go on the topic of her punishment.

"Being rich has its problems too, as you might have heard before." he noted. The french girl figured that it was a start of a story, so she went and sat on the side of the table to make herself more comfortable.

"You see, a while ago, I met a young girl...much younger than even yourself...who is a sugar sweet child that one would like to spoil to no good." He started off, seeing that the teenager made herself comfortable, "The fact was she actually hates being called a child, just like you. And you can always see with your own eyes how that little angle tries her best to sound mature. Despite the fact that she doesn't quite succeed it all the time, the young child sound older than her own age. Actually, sometimes I get worried that she sounds too old for the young age of 7 sometimes..."

The fully-hearted said words seemed a bit too much to Annette.

She never liked girls. In fact, she despised them to a very rivalry extend. Of course if she actually had befriended one before there wouldn't have been much of those feelings. But since the black-haired teenager only had experience with her master's ladies...she despised them all. Though she didn't want him upset him or anything, so she just kept her own feelings of boredom to herself.

"Sadly, that girl is a daughter of a rivalry family from England...So I can't invite her simply like that. And actually she has a tough and strict life because she's the heiress. Well, anyway," Annette almost screamed, _'Finally.'_ but did it only inside of herself.

After taking a breath, the old man continued, "this child doesn't complain about the amount of studies she does or the fact that she has absolutely no social life. In fact, the only thing she ever talks about is the family and her studies and how happy she is to reach her father's expectations." The french teen couldn't help but roll her eyes, "The English just don't know how to have fun and _voila_. There really isn't much more to it."

The statement was so true for that family which they were talking about, that Nono gave a look of acknowledgement to Annette.

If there was a need to detest anyone on earth, for the old man it would be Nicholas, the 19th Boss of the Lonestad Family. It wasn't that he hated him or anything..it was just an old, rather stupid, family rivalry that was between the two families since ever Vongola was created. They never crossed blades, guns or whatever else there was left, but the hatred wasn't broken either way.

"I wouldn't say that english in general are.." the gentleman tried to make sure he wasn't misunderstood, but the girl just gave him a stare that showed a careless attitude, in other words, he understood that she didn't give a damn about any explanations.

_'When I can I get the hell out of this lame room of boredom_?!' the teen thought, trying hard to think of a way to get him to speak faster. Of course there was also her wound which just decided to hurt out of no where.._...'I didn't think he would start talking about a random brat...an english brat for that.'_ Annette sighed, wondering if her life could get any worse than that.

"Well, anyway, the point is.. the girl is almost locked up and doesn't even see the problem with it. The same problem goes for you, my dear child." Nono stood up and with the use of his cane, walked slowly in the girl's direction, "You're a lonely child that doesn't see that she is wasting her life. Why do you do the things you do? Don't you want a life?" The judgemental eyes that he gave Annette weren't very pleasing.

Actually, seeing now where the conversation was going, the girl waited with alert for the next question that was suppose to come from the man.

"Why exactly did you kill Andrei?" Finally the old man asked it, staring at the girl, wondering what her reaction would be.

"Andrei? Oh! Him? He was annoying me." Annette answered simply. To her, it was a very reasonable reply, so she relaxed herself.

To the guy with normal moral knowledge and belief...it sounded as the worst reply one could make.

"You killed a man because he was annoying you?" He reasked, hoping that she would come to her senses. But unfortunately for him, Annette didn't even see what was wrong with it, "_Oui._" she replied confusedly.

"Don't you find it wrong that you did it because of that?" the man was getting really worried for her moral education. Didn't she know that it was a sin to kill a man?

Understanding what the misunderstanding was, Annette just gave an 'Oh.' sound. Then the teen started walking off to sit on her chair side-ways, so that her legs would go over the arm-handles and crossed.

"You seem to think that I don't know what the sins are, isn't that so?" She began, looking at her nails which were forgotten to be coloured. "Well, you can relax, since I was made to read about such things." Remembering the times that Reborn made her read boring, big books when she couldn't finish her daily training on time, Annette got a shiver but let it go.

"The problem is: I just... don't care." The girl confessed, crossing her hands.

"And why is that?" The guy asked, seriously wondering what goes through that head of hers.

"Not much of a reason, really." Annette replied light-heartedly, "Since young, I haven't really been close to anyone...well, with an exception of maste-" Then she coughed, hoping to stop herself from saying unnecessary things. Somehow she's been remembering that men a bit too many times recently and even the teen knew that it was odd.

"Maste?" her companion asked confusedly. " a master-mind like myself~." The girl covered it up. Luckily she was a quick enough for it to not sound like it was false information, "Though the wound is starting to act up. It hurts like hell." She took a deep breath in and out, while placing her arm on the bandage. That wasn't acting, it was real pain that started frying her inside organs. Of course it wasn't really that severe...but it was making her feel like the world was going to end.

After a while and another dry cough, Annette believed that she could speak properly again and continued with a cold tone that told everyone around would understand that she wasn't pleased, "Anyway, as a boss of a mafia family, you probably know about me as much as that Andrei did, isn't that right? Then I don't see why my words sounds so shocking to you."

The old man nodded, also adding, "We know a bit more actually. But for the questiong _why_, my child..I'll have to explain a few other things beforehand."

"Being the boss of the Vongola has the advantage of having influence over others. Most of the time I try to use that influence in a good direction...Of course, there are those times that dirty tricks have to be used. But in your case, I hope to help you." He started.

"Since I see you as only a child who was lead in the wrong path." The Vongola boss told the truth, which he began thinking of from the beginning of their meeting.

"But I can' I can see by your face, you're not aware of anything I said, am I right?" he asked, delightfully watching the puzzled expression on the girl, who bothered to sit straight after the shock-pain. The teen took a few pieces of eclairs from the table at the same time while concentrating hard on what the boss was saying.

"All you have to know is that Vongola is a strong...all right, strongest mafia family in the world, which has many allies from around the globe.( It's kind of a pain sometimes for it to be so big..if it wasn't, the paperwork would be at least half the size, no?). And at the moment I'm the ninth boss." The small introduction to the family was so quick, that Annette didn't feel anything grand to it.

And well, she also naturally stated a known fact like, "Then Xanxus will become the tenth, right?" What was not expected, was for the Ninth to turn around and walk slowly to his own chair on the other end of the table.

The french teen tilted her head to see if there was something really odd about what she just saw, but before anything came from her, the man replied, "We'll see." To the girl it sound like a weird way of agreeing, but didn't press on it since it was none of her business.

"Anyway, the point is - Andrei was a son of one of my allies and to keep that ally, I have to punish you or so they say." Annette was about to interrupt with a 'no kidding' there, but the ninth cut her short and continued instead, "But. This is where Vongola's influence comes in use. I'm here to propose a deal, Annette." The girl just raised her eye-brow wondering just what was happening. He wouldn't ask her to be Vongola's maid too, right?

"A deal where you'll have to work for the Vongola and we can keep an eye on you.." The man's kind voice was making the strict orders seem like a pleasant conversation, but the teen didn't fall for it. Instead, she went ahead and played with him in the game.

"And what if I say no?" The girl's lips curled up into a smirk.

"You'll have to be punished...Though since I don't want to do it, I'm not sure what will happen." The ninth just replied plainly. It was obvious he wasn't sure of the situation himself, but he knew that there was no harm done...at least for now.

"Then I'll decline your offer. I'm the one that likes taking risks over a cage." Annette answered him then. She stood up then, after finishing her milk and last pieces of her chocolate muffin, and walked to the door.

Turning before leaving, the girl pronounced, "_Au revoir, monsieur~_"

She was quite happy with the way it all went. To her, it seemed like the ninth believed in her fully. That's why all of the way back to the Varia HQ, the girl was smirking.

.

.

.

"Annette~! You're back! How are you? Were you scolded? Tell me what the punishment will be!" The anxious Lussuria came, running down the big stairs.

"Kshishishi~, I want to hear what the maid had to do~." A bored prince said, grinning as he was walking down the stairs. "Voii! Why are you so smily?!" A loud swordsman (wannabe in Annette's opinion) asked, also curious on what happened. They all knew that the old man was kind (and weak, in their opinion) and didn't think he would harm the girl...but then again, you never know.

"Oh, what are you all talking about? Did you think I would come back being all gloomy and depressed?" The sarcastic questions with a pinch of girlish shock in them didn't work on any, but the french teen still began laughing lightly, "Oh non, non, non..I actually had a wonderful and pleasant breakfast with...Xanxus's _pere*_. He told me about the big Vongola of which he is the ninth boss of and everyhing...oh, and he won't punish me he said. He sees me as a child going on the 'wrong path', so he thinks that it's not my fault... etc.. etc."

The crowd of teenagers (and Bel) looked at Annette, then at themselves, then back again. Squalo slapped his face,_ 'Must have guessed..._' he thought before rolling his eyes and continuing his way to Xanxus's room.

Though before the white-haired teen could reach the room, the guy he was searching for walked right past him.

"So, the old geezer let you go out of pity, trash?" Xanxus asked, raising his awesome eyebrow up and crossing his arms.

Getting offended by such a remark, Annette came back with a comeback straight off, "I wasn't pitied, fool. He saw me with potential and let me go." Ok, it wasn't maybe her best, but good enough anyway.

"HA! What potential?! The old man just can't see anymore! Ahaha~~! His weak way of thinking doesn't let him see straight!" The son of that old man kept insulting him, "Fine, if he doesn't give punishments which are necessary, I'll do it for him!"

The girl felt like her temple from her brain burning up and chest from the injury was choking, but she took one breath to shout out her frustration, "DIDN'T YOU HURT ME ENOUGH ALREADY?! YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT WILL TAKE BEFORE MY SKIN RIGHT HERE WILL BECOME PRETTY AGAIN?! YOU'RE A SON OF SATAN! NOT SOME SWEET, WEAK OLD MAN'S SON!"

The girl was on the verge of collapsing, but she stood there with her last strength, to hear the guy's reply.

Everyone from the teens were watching this intensively, as if it was an interesting drama TV-show, that all of them liked so much.

"I'M HIS DAMN SON, LIKE IT OR NOT! I'M THE ONE WHO'S INHERITING THE VONGOLA AFTER HE FINALLY DIES! DON'T FORGET THAT, TRASH!" The guy exploded just as much. Was it because his pride was kicked or something, but the teenagers weren't really expecting Xanxus to explode like that.

"HA! You two are like water and oil! What makes you so sure that he's your father? Or that he will give the family to you?!" The girl just continued rumbling on about things she didn't quite know or understand.

"What in the devil's-...Where did you get that idea from, trash?" The black haired boy asked, getting confused. Annette just rolled her eyes, "You don't look the same. You've got absolutely nothing in common...and you're pretty violent for the type of heir he would probably want to have."All of those points were so true that nobody knew how to argue back.

...Even Xanxus. That's why, after a moment of silence he asked, "Where do you think the truth is written?"

This surprised Annette, who was really on the verge of falling unconscious. Though before she did, the girl rumbled "The diary or something." Most rich men had diaries were they right down happenings and their own thought on them, so that they wouldn't forget it.

The crimson irises glared at the fallen figure before walking off, _'I'll show you that I'm his son and heir!_' he thought, leaving to his own room to think.

* * *

Yay! Chapter ended~~...and we see now how the idea in the canon story of Xanxus looking in Nono's diary for information came by~. Well, not exactly but still...TT^TT I tried, I swear!

Ok: some short french translations again:

pere (there should be an accent mark on the first letter...but my computer doesn't have it, so I hope it's ok anyway) - Father

There was only one word...but either way~.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter and please review~!


	15. Chapter 15

author's note: Hello everyone! I'm sorry for the late update! I truly am! Though if anyone to blame for it, it's the school as per usual. This year is very important to me, as I'm choosing the high school to go to = _ =. Trust me, it's no fun and games... Well, now I've found the time to write, so~ let's just enjoy the weird, self-confident teen in all her glory. Did I mention that writing acts like a relaxation period for me? Yeah...it does...

**Please read:** By the way...I just reread the chapter about Xanxus reading the diary...in there, he already did it before becoming boss of the Varia. So yeah, I hope none of you were too confused about that. Just to make it all simple, I'll put it in this way - my story has its own round-about way from the canon.

ANYWHOS~~!

disclaimer: I don't own the wonderful work written and drawn by Amano Akira, expect for the Oc...which is my own creation.

Hope you'll enjoy~~.

* * *

chapter 15:

_The 'chat'  
_

It was a _deja vu_. She was sure of it. No matter from which perspective you would've looked it was all the same.

The same room, the same bed, the same_ damn morning_. Was it just her, or was something seriously wrong with that? Probably something was wrong with it. After all, how can she have gone mad?! That's absurd talk! Never will such a thing accure...or so she claims.

Not wanting to think about psychology out of no where, the girl looked around the unchanged room. If anything, she would hardly be even surprised if either Lussuria or the old men would go through the carefully, wooden carved doors at any minute.

After a few more minutes of adjusting to the bright, morning light. The girl lazily began moving towards a sitting position.

When the teen finally sat down, she noticed that her head felt really heavy, as if she would drop it any time, any where. And her thick, jet black hair was flying at least ten cm in every direction, making it look like a complete mess, although it was just electrified from sleeping too long on the pillow. It also felt greasy and disgustingly dirty, as if she didn't wash it for months or something.

Annette made a mental note to go to the shower, since it seemed like most of her body parts smelled of sweat and dirt. Of course, that would have to wait until she bothers to stand up from the comfortable and fluffy bed. Let the God tell you how much she didn't want to get up. After all, He was the witness of such a pleasurable view.

Stretching her arms as high as they could reach, cracks were coming from some of her joins. They were loud cracks too. Almost as if the girl just got out from her grave. Not like that was too far from the truth. She_ did_ almost die by Xanxus's hands, didn't she?

Finally deciding that sleeping in that much was bad for her looks, the French girl took one leg at the time from under the huge blanket. Her long, naked legs began to shiver from the unexpected cold air. If it wasn't for their master telling them to, they would've probably already gone back under the darling blanket yet again. Why is the world so cruel to them?

And to make things even worse, the poor French teenager almost fell from those same legs becoming super numb when she tried to stand up. They were so numb, that if she didn't grab something to hold onto, she would've fallen. And falling is a no-go for a mysterious damsels like herself. Now, just what would all her fans think if they saw her falling on flat ground? Probably that she's really adorable, but Annette figured that they think that either way and wouldn't care for their opinion to begin with.

Twisting her feet and legs slightly, more loud zombie's awakening cracks were heard, not that it bothered her. In fact, she actually like to hear her bones give different noises. Though since over-doing that changes the positions of the bones themselves a.k.a. their looks, she didn't do it so often.

Letting her thoughts take the better of her, she wondered her gaze from one point of the room to another. The whole place was nothing special. Nothing overly gay, nothing standing out...except well, it's normality probably, since no other room in the Varia looks 'normal'. Annette would know. She isn't a maid for nothing, right?

_'I guess Lussuria has a taste for some things, non?_' she thought in acknowledgement, looking at the creamy, vintage designed room. Sadly, she knew very well that this was just a cover up and the plainness of it was only necessary for girlish get-aways later on, so that it could change dramatically whenever the flamboyant teen ever wanted it to.

Sighing, the girl's back shivered, realising that her first girl friend is a gay assassin. Ironic, right? Since he's probably also the only 'girl' she could, does or will tolerate. The others were brainless chickens that were always running around her ex-beloved master. Oh how she hated their guts and stupidity, it was only natural that she never had one to begin with.

Trying to stand up for the second time, Annette took deep measures of how to slowly move, so that she wouldn't have to fall off balance. After all, balance was and is one of her specialities.

She succeeded to stand properly without grabbing onto something for support. Now the only problem for which was remaining was..well, walking I guess.

_'Just how many years did I sleep in this time?_' the girl wondered sarcastically, pinching softly her right cheek, checking if they were still holding that fresh and healthy look. Luckily for her, she noticed a mirror not that far away and began walking slowly towards it, feeling awkward from the weird touch the soles of her feet were giving to her.

It almost felt foreign.

The trip didn't take her as long as she believed it would, though it took long enough to be considered slow.

Anyway, when the girl looked at the full-sized mirror, her impression was...rather discouraging. Firstly, the teenager's face turned sour, and then just plain disgust filled it.

"Why am I wearing such a man-sized shirt which looks horrible and dorky on me?!" She squealed at the top of her lungs, as if it was a life and death situation...Well, I guess for her, it was.

"Shishishi~, so the corpse finally stood up from its grave?" A young, boyish voice sang from the door's passage way.

Not reacting at first, the girl just shook her head trying to get it together, _'So this the whole Varia wasn't a dream after all?'_ she thought, while still trying to think of a way to make the shirt look better.

"Hmm~ Is the brainless peasant ignoring the genius prince?" The same boy of 8 years old asked, grinning in mischievous way while taking out a fan of fancy designed knives.

The latter still ignored him, since she believed that she figured how to solve her problem.

And before the pitiful prince could get at the top of breaking point, Annette took off her T-shirt, revealing a braless upper-body of a 16 years old girl to the kid.

Not knowing from where, but Belphegor's cheeks began to burn up a bit from confusion. "Just what do think you're doing, maid?!" The prince threw his set of knives at her from pure irritation.

Dodging the thin, sharp metals that were thrown at her, skilfully, the girl caught one in mid-air, "Just what I needed~." she winked at her companion mockingly. Bel was annoyed beyond reason and began throwing an over-exaggerative amount of knives at her.

Annette moved out of instinct to different places, still shirtless, hoping to get a break from the brat so that she could finish making the shirt more wearable.

"Are you happy now?" The French girl asked, sitting on top of one of the closets after half an hour of throwing and dodging.

"You're just a furless, peasant cat in a human form." The blond prince bitterly tried to insult her, while trying to catch his breath.

"Why, thank you, darling." the girl replied, crossing her legs to be more comfortable, "I happen to really like cats. So that's a very sweet compliment coming from you. I thought you were just a miserable brat...but seems like you can act sometimes as a sweet mamma-boy too, once in a while~." The last remark was done on purpose...and Bel knew it, since he saw that smug of a face on her looking at the shirt.

"Flat-chested peasant. Prepare to die by a prince's hands." He fell into his starting position and attacked, jumping with all his strength at her. But it just happened to be at that exact moment that the girl noticed her skin.

"Stop!" She yelled in surprise, stretching her hand out in front of herself, letting the 8-years-old kiss the palm with high amount of force. And let me remind you of something...the French teenager was sitting on the top of a cupboard..just so you get the point that the poor kid also fell, afterwards, from a height of about 2.5 m.

Cursing at everything and everyone possible, Bel made sure to curse the annoying maid most, while standing up and glaring daggers through his thick blond bangs. It wasn't for the first time she made a fool out of him! A genius like him! How is that even possible?!

Well, Annette did feel bad for basically throwing the boy to the ground. And it was very unpleasant to receive unseen daggers from hidden eyes. "You know, it would do you good to cut those bangs. Even when you're doing such a job on glaring, it's not exactly working...since I can't even see them.." The girl sighed, feeling sorry for him.

Despite the happening, the French teenager didn't lose sight of what had stopped her track of thought.

She jumped down her sitting place with grace and walked towards the same mirror. She looked at it, stared at it, poked it, did a few different posses and figured that her 'dream' wasn't exactly real. _'What happened to the injury?'_ she wondered, touching her tender, darkish creamy coloured skin. It was completely repaired...almost as if it wasn't ever even hurt (or burned in her case).

Annette was never the one to think about things too deeply, unless it really was important. So whatever made her skin shine again, she didn't care, as long as it was back to the way it was before.

She smirked, adoring her own image. Of course, she figured that it would be better for her to put on a shirt...since she really didn't want any of the men in the Varia (a.k.a. the underlings, the actual 'men') to get any wrong idea.

Though before she put it on, the French teenager used Bel's knife to cut a long V shaped neck, cutting any sleeves that were present (it was a T-shirt...) also making a cut at the bottom of the shirt, so that she could take the two sides and tie a knot at the front.

After a while of getting a confirmation from herself, the girl agreed that it was better looking.

In that time, Bel had watched her, wondering if she went crazy or something of the sort.

Annette noticed that the kid was still there, and she used that chance to ask about the shower. "Brat, where is the shower~?" her flirting tone only added to the boy's annoyance.

That's when he finally had enough, "Hmph. I didn't sign up to be a baby-sitter when I joined the Varia." He just stated, throwing his hands over his head and walking towards the door.

"I didn't hear you correctly, brat." Annette's voice changed automatically, dropping by a few notes, "Where was it?" her eyebrow rose.

"I said..." Bel was about to repeat when he sighed and gave up, "The boss wants to see you." _'Let the scary boss take care of it~shishishi~.'_ he grinned after closing the door behind himself.

Out of confusion, the girl just blinked, _'Why would Xanxus want to see me?...Could it be?!_' her onyx eyes began to shine glitter from excitement, _'Yes! Finally! Oh~, darling~, you took so long to recognise your own feelings~! I almost gave up hope!'_ And as if energy rose in her like electricity in metal, the girl began running out of the room and into the corridor like a little girl.

Bel, strolling through the corridors was grinning happily, believing that he finally would get his revenge against the maid...Though he stopped dramatically when the said maid passed by him with a smiling happy-go-lucky tune to her atmosphere.

_'Just what in the world of the seven seas?_' he questioned, irking to facepalm himself...not knowing even for what.

Annette stopped in front of the door to "Xanxus's study" and took a deep breath, slapping her cheeks a bit, so that they would calm down. And after another deep breath in, she calmly walked in, placing her seductive smirk on.

Though it took her one look to figure out that she was wrong. The atmosphere was heavy...very heavy. It almost felt like she came upon a judging room.

And when Annette got caught in those bloody irises that looked plain deadly at her, she actually understood_ why_.

She closed the door behind herself and then, after a sigh asked, "So, I was correct?" Her delicate eyebrow rose, while she walked slowly towards a chair next to the boy

He didn't answer, but it was rather obvious from the beginning what the answer was, so Annette didn't press on the subject, "What did you call me for? To take your anger on me? You know that's not gonna help, right? It won't even help if you take out on all of the Varia. So, will you plan a _coup d'état_ or something of the sort against the old man? I me-" "Shut up, trash." The boss of the Varia said, or more like ordered, making the girl frown.  
The guy was holding a glass of strong tequilla, The girl wondered just how many did he drink by now, since his voice did sound kind of off and the way he was holding the glass was more wavy than usual.

"You're drunk, Xanxus...I never thought I'd see that side of you." she stated, moving in his direction to get that glass of alcohol away from him, "...And I also never thought that I would have to tell this to you. Alcohol does not help in these cases. Trust me, got experience."

When she tried to take the glass away, the guy moved his arm up, so she could slip. Luckily for her balancing skills, she didn't fall. When she tried for the second time, he moved it again and again and again.

"Don't play with me, ya little piece of-!" Annette's veins were as popping as they her face was flushed.  
For the fifth time, she slipped...and landed perfectly on Xanxus's knees. Forgetting her own character, the girl blushed from her lack of balance.

And with a frown the French teen turned to face the guy, still sitting on his laps, "You'r-" "I ain't a little pussy cat like you to go and get drunk because I ain't feeling well, scum. I ordered you to come here so you wouldn't get the wrong idea - I'm Xanxus, the son of that damn man. Adopted or not, the title which was promised to me...that_ title_ is **mine**._ No one else will get it._" The self-confident smirk made, for some reason, Annette's heart skip a beat...a fast one for that.

Blinking a few times, she found herself on the floor.

"Huh?" was her response, since she didn't even know _how_ it happened.

"Whatcha looking dumb for, scum?" Xanxus asked, raising an eyebrow, "You're _heavy_, so I kicked ya off." his uninterested tone made it sound like he really was bullying her.

While Annette was still trying to put everything together in her head, the guy walked off to take out a file of some sort.

"I just...I just don't know how a man can treat a delicate girl like me this way!" she exclaimed almost from irritation, "You're a god-forsaken m-" "Mafia boss?" Xanxus interrupted her for the third time in less than thirty minutes.

"Never mind." She replied, with a deadpan expression, not caring to act stupid any more.

"You're not a delicate girl to begin with." He threw the file precisely so it would land in front of the said 'girl'.

The landed with a 'thug' and opened to the front page.

"The shark trash did a research on you while you were off, dead." Xanxus said rather calmly, crossing his arms and leaning against the wooden desk, "You're a trash from the streets with nothing but words. Eight years of your existence is cut blank. And the rest is rubbish."

"So? What's your point?" The girl asked, sort of furrowing her face from that same statement,_ 'What does he mean eight years of my existence is cut blank?! Those are my times I spent with Master!...'._ Her face changed to a brooding expression when she took those files with her own information put in it_. 'I wonder just where in the world is he now...'_ ,but on the surface, she just looked back at the boy and stated dully, "I don't see how that's anyhow related to anything. If I'm _so boring_, why not give me the money and let me go?" Standing up, she brushed her hair and added, "Or is it just that you love me too dearly for that~?"

Xanxus went quiet.

Annette got a bit dumb-founded, _'Did I hit a jackpot?_' she wondered, curiosity filling herself up. Though she let it go after the boy's statement. He was just much too much to handle...

"You smell like shit." he knew that it was enough to send her off flying to the shower...and it did.

.

.

"Lussuriaa~~!" The girl yelled, trying to find her only comforting companion in the whole of the HQ.

After taking her maid costume from her room, which was nicely cleaned and ironed beforehand, the girl went and took a bath. The underlings obviously didn't think twice about anything and fought over where she should take it. Taking that chance, Annette escaped their crowd and found Levi coming out from a shower. From definite reasons she tried to move as fast as possible from him. Then after turning here and there, she opened up one of the rooms and surprise, surprise, it was a bathroom.

The water felt fresh and rewarding on her, as if she hadn't touched it for months.

After the pleasant bath, she felt like a shining statue made of gold or silver...with diamonds of course. And the fresh maid's dress on her felt even prettier than before.

Though she had to admit one thing about her that didn't quite like...and it was that she got too skinny from not eating for a long time. _'Just how could've Xanxus called me heavy?'_ she wondered from curiosity.

And so, the breakfast at 1 pm was served like it was absolutely normal. Her usual triple-choco cake with the hot chocolate was heavenly. If anything, she could've probably stayed for the breakfasts at least...she definitely could've gotten used to them.

"Lussuriaa~!" She yelled for the second time, wondering just where in the world he went to when she needed him.

Fortunately, she didn't have to yell for the third time his name, since she saw him out of the window, fighting a dozen of guys at once.

_'What's going on?'_ she wondered. It only took her a few seconds later to get a reply.

...They were attacked.

* * *

Tralalalala~. I'm finished! Aren't you glad?! I hope this chapter wasn't too much.

Please tell me how you feel about Annette? Is she ok or too much? I'm trying to keep her still normalish...once in a while, but you know, she IS a Varia-quality maid, right? By the way, I'm not too sure about Xanxus's dialog as well. It doesn't sound Italian, but I think he would also use a dialog rather than a plain language...cuz you know, cursing with a completely grammatically correct language...sounds rather off...or maybe it's just me.

Leave a review so I can see what you guys think of the story development so far, ne?

Ciao~


	16. Chapter 16

author's note: Hello everyone~! My, is it May already? *tries to act clueless* Alright...yet again I'm months late...trust me..I haven't been lazing around..I SWEAR! It's all the..other stuff that kept me from uploading. *pout* So, don't blame me, alright?

Disclaimer: I don't own KHR, exception: my sweethear tAnnette~ and other random people that come along the story line.

I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Warning: Lots of weird, cliche fightings...I don't really know how to write a fighting scenes. So, hope you still like it. I'm just warning...you can give a comments later about how it went.

Let the continuation of the story BEGIN~~

* * *

Chapter 16:

_The continuation of the competition._

_'Dear Varia, it has been a pleasure making fun of you for the past time that I've been here,' _Annette was making a mental message to the Varia, without anybody ever finding it out, _'But I believe, in great grief, that I'll...have to desert you~.'_ And as she thought of the last word, the girl walked into her own small room for the second time that day,_ '...Your sweetheart, Annette Claire.'_

Fortunately she didn't say those words out loud, because that would have been rather awkward.

_"Sacrebleu_!" she hissed in her mother-tongue. opening and slamming the doors to her cupboard closed.

"Those brats really know how to be annoying..." The girl felt like her killing intend was sneaking out of her. Somebody just dared to rob her..it's rather ironic when a thief gets robbed. But you know, no one's perfect, right?

"Tch, seems like those guys really want some piece of me." The normal threatening line sounded rather...odd. Was it because of how she said it? Or the way she brushed her thick black hair away, to show her naked, long neck? Either way, it wasn't anything that you, little kids, have to accustom yourselves with.

Annette took out a brick from the cupboard (yes, she hid a brick in that cupboard too...don't ask why) she just slammed back open. With that brick, she managed to somehow place a hole in the wall next to it.

"Well, well~...I've always been kind enough to return the favours~." she smirked while trying to find something inside that hole in the wall. Once she found whatever that she was looking for, her smirk changed to a grin. After all, a hitman never stays empty-handed when the territory is recognised to be theirs. That was one of the few lessons she was glad to learn from the best. "Let them see who they felt like messing around with~." Annette said to her object while kissing its top as if it was her precious.

The halls on the top floor were empty and extra quiet. Almost like in a graveyard. Although, one could say that 'almost' from that sentence could be dismissed.

Annette walked down the beautifully carved stairs, whose carpets were slightly repainted in bright and sparkling crimson colour. Of course there were the corpses that added to the scenery, but lets just say they weren't exactly too pretty. Those unfortunate souls thought that they were safe from the horror downstairs, when they 'happened' to cross the maid's path. Sad little souls.

On the other hand, in a room on a lower floor...

"You're going to pay for what you did to our young master!" one of the men yelled and began charging with a sword in his hands.

Xanxus just sat there, as if he couldn't give a damn. What kind of a boss would fight a low-rank officer from a family that was attacking you? And what kind of a man would take care of someone else's problem? Well, for one, not Xanxus. He just sat there in his king-like chair and taking a gulp from his glass of tequila like a boss (which is funny, cuz he's an actual boss...(Director: I'm sorry, my sense of humour is rather dull...)). It's not like he didn't know which family these fools were a part of, or what the trash was talking about...it's just that, like Annette, he didn't care.

The sword was about 1 or so inches away from the target's nose, when the boss finally felt like moving his lazy butt. _(Director: I used inches cuz it's more appropriate here, I apologize if it's uncomfortable to you that I'm changing the measurements all the time...)_

"Trashes should know their place." he said the last statement before burning the enemy's pitiful face so that he flew a few metres from the spot he was standing at.

It wasn't in Xanxus's measurements that his hand would start bleeding after grabbing the sword's sharp blade. Though he was too lazy to move and do something about it, so he just sat there and continued resting his legs on the small vintage-like stool in front of him.

And since he didn't seem to get disturbed again, the teenager yawned and closed his eyes to fall asleep.

At the other side of the mansion, Varia's officers fought the huge amounts of enemy men without a pause or a break.

"Maa~, there is no end to them~!" The gay guy was sweating like there was no tomorrow in his tight outfit. His biceps were sparkling in the sun because of the amount liquid that was coming out of him. Oh...did I also mention it was a hot day in Italy, under the sun..? Yeah, no matter how romantic it sounds, it can give you health problems easily too if you're not careful.

"Ushishishi~ you're just stupid to be using so much physical strength." The eight-years-old prince declared, throwing a few more knives in the enemies direction, "And that's why the prince's brilliance is always awed by others. I've got no need to sweat like a pig because of some peasants." Squalo really wanted to hit the little's brat's head, since he happened to also start sweating under the hot sun. Unfortunately for the white-haired teenager the brat was doing a good job taking care of the enemy.._.damn the little psycho._

"VOOIII! You handle here! I'll go to the other side and take care of things the- AND WHERE THE HELL ARE LEVI AND MAMMON?!" The white-haired teen yelled, ordering the officers that were present. Poor Levi and Mammon would probably get it later.

"The baby escaped inside when he felt the presence of these peasants." Bel replied, not wanting to get on Squalo's nerves for too long when he was serious. A little accident before showed that it wasn't such a good idea.

"Ah! I think Levi ran after boss." Lussuria answered, breathing heavily and concentrating on attacking the next bunch of boring men. None of them fitted our gorgeous Varia officer's criteria, so it really was all a tiring bore to beat them up.

"Tch!" The battle-commander slashed three men that were about to attack him for reduction of his own frustration.

He felt that his life sucked just that badly. The amount of stress that the whole Varia always put on him was just too much sometimes. At time he felt his veins popping from his heavy headaches. And the saddest bit of this miserable being was, that the girl that he felt something special about, was a psycho and a thief... His life is just pitiful like that.

"Don't slack of brats!" He yelled, while starting to make his way to the other side of the mansion.

"Ushishishi~, nobody commands the prince~!" Belphegor commented at the wrong time. Squalo heard it and just glared at the eight-years-old as if the world was going to end if the boy did anything against his orders. "Woa~, sharkie thinks he can copy the boss~."

"Bel-chan~, you shouldn't tease Squa-chan." The muay thai user moaned, hitting another guy, while giving an air-kiss to the other.

"I don't want to hear that from someone like you. And don't call the prince that." Bel-chan looked at the Varia officer in disgust. (Bel: Don't you dare call me that either, stupid director! Director: Aww~, come on~, it's adorable! I'm a girl too, so it's fine, right~? Bel: What's with the "too"?! Director: nothing~.)

More knives were thrown in the older men's direction, slicing their skin to the point that they couldn't move any more from the pain.

With Squalo...

"Just how many of them are there?!" The white haired swordman already defeated 50 (or so it felt) soldiers...and yet, there was no end to them! While the teenager was frustrating over it, he didn't happen to notice that bullet which was aimed at his head.

A hole was created in the wall next to Squalo. His eyes widened as he heard several bangs sound from the other side of the hall. (Director: *coughs* yes, it's another note.. - bullets are faster than the speed of sound, so theoretically speaking, one would see the end result of the shot before hearing the sound...I just wanted to make sure that you understand..sorry for interrupting again)

"You're welcome, _mon cherie_~."

Out of all people in the world, the swordsman never expected to hear _her_ voice. That strong french accent, that annoying sweet and sour tone...and the irritating self-confidence...all statements combined, one should hate such a person, right? But somehow, he could only stare in her direction without giving a slightest hint of anything that was going through him.

"Oh, don't look at me like that. I know you love me, alright? You don't have to make it even more obvious." the black-haired seducer smiled, "That's why we can't possibly have you wounded because of you looking at the pretty me, _oui?_" Yes, that self-confidence was rather...measuring up to Squalo's bursting point. Though he decided to just ignore it for everybody's sake.

"Don't get full of yourself. There is a never ending bunch of them. Unless you have more bullets under that skirt of yours, I doubt you'll be of much use." He probably said that from stuttering, but Annette gave a gasp.

"How rude! I didn't know you were a pervert!" she replied, acting like she was trying to protect her own innocence.

Squalo was again put in the situation where his cheeks were turning slightly warmer than normal while he was doing his best to hide this fact by acting angry, "Vooiii!" His pitiful wanna-be threat made his savior laugh, "Ohohohahaha~! You're so much fun to tease~."

"Don't worry, hottie. I don't need to be hiding bullets under my skirt. You just wouldn't be able to imagine how uncomfortable it is to have them there. I know in movies lots of female hitmans and assassins have knives and stuff on their legs...but seriously, it's a pain in the neck to have metal pressed against your pretty skin so tightly~!" She complained, but then added with a sweet tone, "But you know, you can always get more on the field...from the enemy." The white-haired swordsman noticed her eyes sparkling with ultra-confidence as she moved closer to him.

It made him sweat-drop from the inside. Something happened so, that he could feel change produced inside his own self. A new flame of excitement rose inside his chest as he gave a grin back. He didn't know why. He was even scared of it. But somewhere in the deep, he had a small thought like_ 'This is going to be fun_.'

The enemy's officers gulped, afraid of knowing what was coming.

...

In less than several minutes, the confused enemy was down and it didn't seem like more were coming.

Annette was out of bullets from her gun's magazine, so she went and exchanged the whole thing for the once that the enemy didn't even have to time to use. It seemed like lots of them were in such shock that they forgot they had a weapon._ 'Oh well, it's my luck.'_ the girl smiled to herself as she found that the their firearm was much better than the one she was holding.

Squalo stood there with not much written on his face, or brain for that matter. At the moment he didn't really want to think of anything else than getting rid of the intruders. So he leaned against a wall and sighed. I guess it was due to the disappointment he felt. I mean, you'd probably be too, if you suddenly had the urge of going all out and then win without much of a fight.

"My, you really seem like an old _grand-père_, sighing like that~." Annette teased him further, though the swordsman didn't react this time. He just played it cool. After all, there was no use getting all worked-up about a girl that wasn't his type.

...Yes, you read correctly _'his type'._

What's his type? I don't know, maybe something like hard-headed complainer, or a sweat bunny? Either way, Annette didn't seem to be fitting his criteria. Though his heart still keeps on skipping a beat whenever she stood closer than 10 cm in front of him.

"Hey, hottie, you getting back to earth?" She asked, after making sure that the weapon in her hands worked, "I know you're in heavens whenever you look at me...but I think that you'd be more useful down here on earth. You're not going to leave a poor, young girl to fight professionals, are you?." Squalo really wondered how come he never laughed at those remarks of hers. He really wanted to, but somehow her serious tone always made him wonder from what planet does she come from?

"I would prefer to leave you here, but you'll just follow, won't you?" He just rolled his eyes and began walking off. Annette changed the topic, without even listening to her companion, "Hei, Squalo...are these men German by any chance?"

The change in her tone surprised the other, so he just answered bluntly, "Yeah, they are. Why?" But since he was off guard, he wondered if this was one of her methods for bullying or something.

But he was wrong...

"Nothing...it's just that it's been a while since I've seen such stern faces...They're the only ones in Europe I've seen with such looks. Or more like, the only ones that left an annoying impression on me." The calmness of her voice somehow made Squalo think that she went sane, _'Did Germans turn her normal or something?'_

"Well, they were the first ones that almost caught me when I managed to steal about half a million euros from Europe's Central Bank, you know, the one that is located in Frankfurt...jerks, they even managed to make such a horrible picture of me." Ok, never mind, there is no need to worry: that was Annette Claire for you. Squalo face-palmed softly and sighed._ 'I am kinda happy to say that the Vongola security is much better than that of a normal government...If even Europe's best security couldn't handle her, that's problematic...'_

_"_Anyway, these guys are a part of the mafia, right?" Annette asked, going back to that weird, normal tone of hers, "Seems like this the 'punishment' the old man was talking about..You know, because I killed that Andrei or whatever his name was...HA! Like these weaklings would even make me budge!"

"Idiot. They're don't know that it was _you_. The one that they're after is obviously..." the swordman stiffened as a realisation came over him,_ 'No wonder they seemed to be going in one direction...'_ "Shit." He pronounced before running off. He's going to die if he doesn't hurry up.

"_Excuse moi_?" Annette asked, not getting what came over her companion. "_Pardon_, but don't you think that that was rude of you, leaving a girl in between your own sentence?" She asked, while catching up to the swordman.

"There is no time!" He exclaimed running at full speed. "Are you late for a date or something? Why are we running?" The other insistingly caught up with the boy's speed. Her face had a whole question mark on it, not liking that she was starting to sweat under her several-layered dress.

"You don't have to!" He barked at her, trying to get to the location as fast as possible. "Eh?" she just continued to follow and then suddenly Squalo halted and grabbed Annette by the waist.

There was a comical expression on our heroine's face, "How dare yo-" "Zip it. I don't want a glass with liquor crashed against my head again." He whispered in frustration, before turning his attention to the sounds that were going behind the door. Annette still didn't get it, but listened carefully too.

"You'll regret ev-AHHGGGHHH!" A man screamed in pain as if he was burning or was on fire.

"You're late, scum." The boss spoke in a low voice, as if he was really tired or annoyed. Only now did our heroine realise what was going on, but it was a bit too late.

"Tch, it wasn't my fault, you shitty boss." The other barked back, not loosing on the anger level for now.

"It really was, darling. Admit it, you're just that slow." The girl teased him with a smirk. And then out of no where she changed the subject, "And anyway, in the end, is this something you call a punishment, where the boss gets to work out a bit? Or is that _sweet pie_ of an old man that naive?" The girl made a french articulation on the words 'sweet pie' as if she was in it for the tease. Xanxus rolled his eyes.

Sadly, in their relationship, the only one that ever got bullied or teased in their relationship...was none other than Annette herself. Because Xanxus is cool like that.

"Woman, you're the next one in line after these trashes are out of my way." The boss declared, letting out a spark of seriousness shine in his eyes, as if he was wearing glasses. The room was full of half-burned, half-grilled men. Annette thought for a little about the boy's declaration just a minute ago and then an idea popped up in her pretty little twisted head. Of course she didn't want to become a roasted turkey without even a caramelized apple.

"You know, why don't we finally finish off our competition? We never got to do it, remember?" The question sounded very innocent and it was. Unfortunately, it wasn't interpreted as such.

"Sour losers are even lower than trashes. And you keep on dropping on the list." Xanxus replied with a sigh.

"Fine." Annette let go through her teeth and turning to face him with a pound, "But just so you know, I'm already on my twentieth." Then she sighed and shrugged her shoulders like it was a piece of cake to beat those guys.

The guy twitched his epic eye-brows several times while standing there and trying to take in the information.

I mean, it's not like he_ wanted_ to compete. NOoo~. Xanxus doesn't do things like COMPETITION. It's just that no matter of the situation: where or when or why, he ALWAYS WINS. Dot. The end. There is absolutely nothing more to it than that. And right now he was 15 men short. No way he was going to let that woman, who is even lower than trash, win. Hell will freeze over _several times_ before he'll let that happen.

"Tch, don't get so cocky. The night still hasn't fallen." He just walked through his maid with a devil's look.  
Annette just smiled back at him sweetly, while cocking her new gun to active mode, "Don't worry, I'll let you taste the sweet taste of defeat this time."

And before Squalo could put a word in, both of them disappeared, leaving him in a messed up room with a glass of liquor next to Xanxus's kind-like chair.

"Those two are messed up." He sighed and took the glass while sitting down in that chair. Finally, a moment of peace.

.

.

With the two love-birds, life couldn't have been better. It was actually funny how close they were at hitting each other's heads, or other vital spots you could possibly find on the body.

"ARE YOU TRYING TO BUR-38-MY HAIR!" Annette yelled at her competitor, while counting the 38th victim that was unlucky to be 100 m from a raged teenage girl.

"Tch. I can't help it, if you are in my way all th-40- time!" Xanxus complained with a frown, counting his 40th man that just got burned.

"I am not! And you cheater! That's 37! Don't you know math?!" Said the girl without any proper education, except for...well, Reborn. That's not education, it's torture. Trust me, there is a BIIIGGGG difference.

"Heh! Trashes should know their places! I'm going to take over Vongola! Hell I'm going to let things like math stand in my way!" Maybe the two of them were so caught up fighting in their own little world that they didn't realize what they were actually doing.

...To be more precise, it wasn't what they were doing, but how they were eliminating the enemy so perfectly in coordination to each other.

In the mafia, there were lots of cases of partnership and/or couple rivalry in battle. It's just that Vongola wasn't exactly very popular in that field. Mostly everyone was fighting either in groups or just by themselves. Since everyone in the history of Vongola was strong, it isn't that hard to believe.

Both Annette and Xanxus have their own way of fighting. They're so different, that it's hard to even compare the two. Though unconsciously they were working together even more perfectly than actual partners.

Of course, they're never-ending bickering and electricity charging from one eye to the other wasn't helping very much. BUT! It was magic. It felt like it. And it was.

The girl took over the long-ranged shots, while Xanxus cover the hand-to-hand battles. Both of them wanted to show off, making their defence unbreakable.

Who knew, right?

It's pretty pathetic, if you ask me.

Well, for one, Lussuria took all the credit for it, "I **knew** they were perfect for each other!" He squealed while hiding in the bush.

"Awesome. This _does_ entertain the prince." The little blond psycho grinned, ignoring his gay companion and enjoying the show. He didn't like the thief, not even in the slightiest bit. He'd rather slice her up and dig up a grave than admit that.

Both of them gave up a while ago and now were just watching the competition.

Unfortunately, his boss and her were putting up an awesome show, making it very entertaining for him.

"Don't even THINK ABOUT IT!" Xanxus threw a flame behind Annette's back, when she got caught off guard. It hit the man that was about to slice our heroine. This made her stutter a bit.

"Tch. You're useless." He turned around, not to face her eyes. It was pointless for him to deny those obvious actions. Or more like, he just did it without thinking. Hardly something to bother about.

Oh, by the way, please don't misunderstand me, since I'm writing here about these teenagers fighting with so much ease. The enemy is not weak. Nope, not even close to that. The only problem is, that these teenagers excelled above average. That's the only reason~ just saying.

"I just know how to act~." Annette covered up her sudden rush of pink across her face, "It's not like you're the type that would show any affections unless put into a dangerous situations." Her cover was so perfect, that the other couldn't answer straight away.

"Fine. Go die by someone else's hands." He just answered, not liking it one bit.

"You seem to be underestimating me, honey." The maid sighed in defeat. Her companion was just _impossible_.

_'Actually, I over-estimated you, woman.'_ The companion stared at her with disappointment. He changed his opinion the next second though.

His crimson orbs became wide in surprise, when he saw the transformation in front of him.

Annette's eyes became hollow. Completely. Though that wasn't the weirdest thing that happened.

Her hold on the gun loosened, letting it twirl around her index finger. Then Annette caught it mid way, and to make her grip more secure, she placed her pinky on the trigger, holding the object completely upside-down.

The next minute no one saw properly. Everything was moving way too fast. Only the shadow of her hair was seen bouncing here and back.

At the moment a small baby joined the audience. He was just calmly drinking strawberry milk, with his head half covered against the hot sun.

His first reaction was eye-rolling, _'Kids.'_ He thought, watching the two teenagers show off.

When he adjusted to the quick pace movement, he got surprised. This proved his point, "Those are definitely moves of that damn Reborn." He muttered under his breath. Of course he didn't really care about it at first, but remembering how worried the stronger arcobaleno was when his student left them on the mountain, he thought that this just might be a good selling information.

This made him smirk, nothing beats then making Reborn beg for his help. Oh, how perfect the plan was. And he might get a very good prize for it too.

...

By the end of the day, Xanxus just went to his own room, which was cleaned up by some low ranks, without admitting his loss.

"OI! I won! Now give the damn money!" Annette pitiful screams were completely ignored. When she brought him another drink, because Squalo drank the one before. When she brought the dinner, stuffing his mouth completely with a full steak (this time made by real chefs), but he just tried to hold in the tears from his mouth being ripped open and huge pieces of meat pushed down his throat.

Before he went to sleep she came in with a drink to his room, trying to play the role of a seducer like usually. BUT IT WASN'T WORKING!

_'Damn them men and their pride! This doesn't even make sense anymore!'_ She hissed inside, kicking the door to her room. Though it was locked. "YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!" Her last bit of anger turned into a miserable cry.

* * *

Yet again, Annette is left crying. Poor thing. Xanxus is just too much.

I'm sowwy if this chapter is weird again. But we've got more of the pair~ aren't ya glad about that? Anyway. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And yes, as you could see, this is the reason Mammon takes interest around him sometimes. Information is a good selling point. ESPECIALLY in the mafia.

Please review, even though I'm a lousy, slow writer, they do motivate me to continue this story.

And happy belated spring that finally came here in the north~~! NO MORE SNOW~! Wiiiii~.


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